Shahi Idgah case: Mosque committee moves SC after Hindu side claims structure is protected by ASI

The management committee of the Shahi Idgah mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura has moved the Supreme Court against an Allahabad High Court order from last month allowing the Archeological Survey of India and the Union government to be made parties to an ongoing suit, Live Law reported.

The Shahi Idgah is located in a 13.37-acre complex, which also houses the Katra Keshav Dev temple. Hindu litigants have claimed that the mosque was built at the spot where the deity Krishna was born after demolishing a temple there.

On March 5, the Allahabad High Court allowed an application by a Hindu plaintiff to add the Archeological Survey of India and the Centre as parties. The plaintiff contended that the structure in question is a protected monument under the Archeological Survey of India and cannot be used as a mosque, Bar and Bench reported.

The plaintiff argued that the Places of Worship Act, 1991, will not apply to the structure. The 1991 law prohibits altering the status of any place of worship from what it was on the day of India’s Independence.

After the mosque committee moved the Supreme Court against the High Court order, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan issued notices to the Hindu litigants.

The court, however, verbally observed that on...

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