The Supreme Court on 16 January stayed the Allahabad High Court order to appoint a commission to survey the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura, an imposing structure next to the Krishna Janmabhoomi. The highest court said that the application filed by the Hindu side was “very vague” and that the high court should not have passed an order based on such an application.

However, the bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta made it clear that the high court could continue to hear the civil suit about the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute. “There are legal issues that arise. That apart, the application for local commissioner is very vague. Can an application be made like this? We are staying the operation of the impugned order. Do not implement the order,” the bench said.

It notified the Hindu bodies, responding to the Idgah committee’s plea, and posted the matter for 23 January.

Decide maintainability of suit first: Idgah committee to Supreme Court

The Committee of Management Trust of Shahi Masjid Idgah’s application claimed that the high court had passed the order when the issue of maintainability of the suit was still pending. Responding to it, the Supreme Court said that the order on appointment of a commission would not be executed.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Taneem Ahmadi and lawyer RHA Sikander said the high court could not have passed the order as the plea was law-barred and its very existence was contestable. They said the court must first examine the issue of maintainability of the suit before granting any interim relief.

On the other side, appearing for Bhagwan Shri Krishna Virajman, senior advocate Shyam Divan and lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain urged the Supreme Court not to put a stay and allow the high court to work out the modalities of the survey, but the bench turned down their plea. “We have reservations about the application. This is very wrong (sic). You have to be very specific and you cannot file an omnibus application like this. You have to be very clear what you want the local commissioner to do,” the bench said.

The committee said in its petition that there was an attempt to mislead the high court into believing that the designs of Mughal architecture were Hindu religious symbols and, therefore, the Shahi Idgah was a temple. “The high court failed to consider its submissions that the plaintiffs had failed to substantiate their allegation that the original ‘kārāgār’, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, lies beneath the Shahi Idgah as alleged, and the submission of in-depth survey to prove the plaintiffs’ allegations only shows that the plaintiffs’ claim is based on guesswork and cannot be entertained,” the petition said.

The committee also challenged the high court order to transfer all civil suits pending in a Mathura court about the dispute to itself. It said the high court ordered the transfer of all suits to itself on the ground of delay, but the petitions were filed only three years ago and there was no delay. It said the parties had compromised in 1968 and now the suit was filed after 55 years which was not maintainable.

The Supreme Court had earlier observed that it would be better if the Allahabad High Court adjudicated the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute, also deciding the preliminary objection on the maintainability of the suit. It had said the multiplicity and prolongation of litigation in such cases could create disquiet one way or the other — as history showed.