A Mathura court has ordered a survey of the city’s Shahi Idgah mosque, Live Law reported on Saturday. The survey is to carried out by a court officer and submitted by January 20.
The court passed the order while hearing a plea filed by Hindu Sena President Vishnu Gupta, who claims that the mosque was built over the birthplace of the deity Krishna.
Gupta has staked claim over 13.37 acres of land around the mosque and has sought demolition of the structure present there.
Gupta’s plea is one of the several applications filed before the court seeking the demolition of the Shahi Idgah mosque. Some have also sought a ban on Muslims praying at the mosque.
On September 30, 2020, a civil court had dismissed the suit to remove the mosque citing the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The law prohibits converting places of worship from one religion to another, with an exception carved out for the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.
However, this decision was overturned by a judge in May 2022, saying that plaintiff had the right to file a lawsuit seeking the removal of the Shahi Idgah mosque.
This was the second instance this year of a court ordering a survey of a mosque in response to petitions by Hindu litigants.
In May, a Varanasi civil court had allowed for a video survey of the city’s Gyanvapi mosque, which found that an oval object was present on the premises. Based on the plaintiff’s submission, the civil court ordered the area where the oval object was found to be sealed.
Hindu petitioners claimed that the object is a shivling, a symbolic representation of the Hindu deity Shiva. Muslims, however, say that it is actually a fountain.
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