The Hindu plaintiffs in the ongoing Shahi Idgah Mosque-Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi civil dispute have now moved a revision petition in the Mathura district court, challenging the order of a civil court, which had decided that it would first hear the Masjid panel’s application challenging the maintainability of the suit.
As proceedings began on Monday before the civil judge (senior division) in Mathura, Advocate Tanveer Ahmed was preparing to begin his submissions under Order VII, Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, on behalf of the Masjid management committee. At this juncture, Advocate Mahendra Pratap Singh informed the court that its earlier order on who to hear first had been challenged in the district court.
“The district court has admitted our revision petition and will hear us on this next on August 11. This means that the proceedings in the civil court will have to be paused till the revision petition is decided,” Mr. Singh said.
The civil court had last week decided that it would start hearing the suit on a day-to-day basis from July 25 onwards, starting with the Masjid panel’s application.
Mr. Ahmed, who is the mosque management panel’s secretary and its lawyer, said, “Mr. Singh is trying to avoid facing our challenge to the maintainability of their suit and this revision petition is an example of that.”
He, however, added that since the district court had not yet stayed the order of the civil court, the hearing on maintainability should continue on a day-to-day basis from July 26.
Mr. Singh is one of the first plaintiffs to file the suit in the instant matter. In addition to his, at least five other suits have been filed in the temple-mosque dispute over the last two years.
Mr. Singh has sought that a commission be set up by the court to conduct a survey of the mosque premises. So far, he had been arguing that his prayer for the commission should be considered first.
