A division bench comprising Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Ashutosh Srivastava passed the order while dismissing a PIL filed by Mahek Maheshwari, an advocate.
Earlier, this court had reserved its verdict in the matter last month.
Though the court pronounced the order of dismissal today (on Wednesday), a detailed judgment is still awaited.
This PIL was separate from the title suit and the hearing on a bunch of petitions related to Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Masjid dispute will continue in the high court.
In May this year, the HC had transferred the cases being heard in the lower court in Mathura to itself. It was contended in the PIL that various texts had recorded the site in question as Krishna Janmbhoomi land. It was further pleaded that the structure there was not a proper mosque, as the same was built by forcibly acquiring the land in question.
The petitioner had emphasized that it was not a proper mosque because as per the Islamic jurisprudence, a mosque cannot be built on forcibly acquired land. On the other hand, as per Hindu jurisprudence, a temple is a temple even if it is in ruins.
Therefore, the petitioner pleaded that the temple’s land should be handed over to Hindus and a proper trust for Krishna Janmabhoomi janmasthan be formed for building the temple.
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An additional prayer in this PIL, which was filed in 2020, was that a court-monitored GPRS-based survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) of the disputed structure should be done.
In the plea, it was also argued that a mosque is not an essential part of Islam and hence, the disputed land should be handed over to Hindus for the exercise of their right to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion under Article 25 of the Constitution.
Earlier, PIL had sought transfer of Shahi Idgah land to Hindus
The judges had reserved their verdict on the plea at the previous hearing. In May, the HC took over the cases that were being heard in a Mathura court. The mosque committee of the Shahi Idgah Masjid thereafter filed a special leave petition challenging this order in the SC.
On July 21, the apex court said it would be better if the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah mosque dispute is adjudicated by the high court,
which should also decide the preliminary objection to the maintainability of the suit.
It said the “multiplicity and prolongation of litigation in such cases could create disquiet one way or the other, as history has shown”.
In his plea, Maheshwari had asked for the land to be handed over to the Hindu side for a shrine to be built under the supervision of a trust.
As in the Shringar Gauri case centering on the Gyanvapi mosque site, the PIL also sought a court-monitored ground penetrating radar (GPR) excavation by the Archaeological Survey of India of the structure allegedly built at Krishna’s “janmasthan”.