District court admits plea on Krishna Temple-Idgah complex in Mathura

Lucknow: The Mathura district court on Friday admitted a plea challenging the September 30 order of the court of civil judge that had dismissed a petition seeking to reclaim about two bighas of allegedly encroached land belonging to Lord Krishna, and believed to be the Hindu deity’s birthplace, from the Idgah mosque in the city.
The court issued notices to the Trust Masjid Idgah, the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust and Shree Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan, and fixed the hearing for November 19.

The original petition that was filed through Ranjana Agnihotri and five other devotees of Lord Krishna had sought removal of the Idgah mosque adjacent to the Lord Krishna temple complex.

The petition had described the mosque as a “superstructure” built on “encroached land” which was a result of an “illegal compromise” that was entered into by the Committee of Management of Trust masjid Idgah on October 12, 1968, with the Society Shree Krishna Janamasthan Seva Sangh to "capture and grab" the contested property.

The court of civil judge had dismissed the plea on September 30 on the grounds that the petitioners who identified themselves as devotees of Lord Krishna did not have the “right to sue”.

The judge had ruled that Lord Krishna had an uncountable number of followers across the world and if every devotee was allowed to sue, then it would lead to a “crumbling of the judicial and social system”.

Advocate Vishnu Jain, who filed the suit, told ET that the district court admitted the appeal on the grounds that the order of the civil judge was in contradiction of the Supreme Court as the apex court’s order last year in the Ram Janmabhoomi case mentioned in para 346 that a worshipper can file a suit to “protect interests of the deity against a stranger where a shebait is negligent in its duties or takes actions that are hostile to the deity”.

The petition mentioned that the trust for the Krishna Janmabhoomi has been non-functional since 1958 and failed to protect the deity's property.