UP court to hear plea to remove mosque at Krishna Janmabhoomi

The Mathura district court on Friday admitted an appeal against the dismissal of a civil suit seeking ownership of the 13.37-acre Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi land and removal of a 17th century Shahi Idgah mosque.
The appeal filed on Monday by a lawyer and five others on behalf of the deity ‘Lord Sri Krishna Virajman’, claimed that the mosque is built exactly where Lord Krishna was born.
Additional district judge Chhaya Sharma, while rejecting the petition on September 30, had cited the Places of Worship Act, 1991 as the reason. According to the law, the religious character of any place of worship built before August 15, 1947 cannot be changed. The law had also barred any legal proceedings to change the character of any religious place. But it had left out the Babri dispute case from its ambit. tnn
One of the petitioners and lawyer Ranjana Agnihotri, who was present in the Mathura court on Friday, said that after the dismissal of the civil suit on September 30, she along with the five others filed an appeal before the district judge. On Friday, district and sessions judge Sadhna Rani Thakur issued notices to UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, Committee of Management, Trust, Shahi Masjid Idgah, Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust, Mathura, Shree Krishna Janmasthan Sewa Sansthan and others. The next date of hearing is November 18, she said.
The suit, filed by Lucknow resident Ranjana Agnihotri and five others, including a Delhi resident, claims that the mosque is exactly where Krishna was born and they have sought the ownership of the entire 13.37-acre land. It also sought cancellation of a compromise decree between the governing body of the temple complex and the management trust of the mosque in 1968.