Mathura: On January 5, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking recognition of Mathura’s Shahi Idgah mosque site as the Krishna Janmabhoomi.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta declined to interfere with the Allahabad High Court’s previous decision to dismiss the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Mehek Maheshwari, IANS reported.
The bench issued a clear statement, stating, “We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment, and hence, the special leave petition is dismissed.” They further clarified that the dismissal of the plea by the apex court would not prejudice the right of any party to challenge the constitutional validity of any enactment.
In his plea filed before the Allahabad High Court, Mehek Maheshwari had prayed for the declaration of Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Places of Worship Act, 1991, as unconstitutional. He argued that the bar imposed by the 1991 Act should not apply in the Janmabhoomi case, asserting that the land had always been considered temple land, and there was no question of changing its nature.
Maheshwari contended that historical records indicated that the disputed site, the Shahi Idgah mosque, was the actual birthplace of Lord Krishna. He emphasized that the history of Mathura dates back to the Ramayana era, predating Islam by 1,500 years. However, the Allahabad High Court dismissed the PIL without delving into the merits of the case in October of the previous year.
A division bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Ashutosh Srivastava of the high court stated, “Since the issues involved in the present writ (PIL) are already engaging attention of the court in appropriate proceedings (i.e., pending suits), we are not inclined to entertain the instant writ petition, and the same is accordingly dismissed.”
