The Shahi Idgah mosque committee on Monday filed its objection against a Mathura court order for a survey of the mosque, reported the Hindustan Times.
The survey order was passed by a civil court on December 24 while hearing a plea filed by Hindu Sena president Vishnu Gupta, who claimed that the mosque was built over the birthplace of the deity Krishna. The court has ordered the survey report to be submitted by January 20.
On Monday, counsel and secretary of the Shahi Idgah management committee Tanveer Ahmed said that the objection was filed since the panel was neither presented with a copy of the petition nor heard before the order was passed or was notified about it, reported the Economic Times.
The mosque committee also sought to clarify that the court order had called for a report of the current status of the religious place and not for a survey.
In his petition, Gupta has staked claim to 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.
In a similar case, Varanasi civil court in May had allowed for a video survey of the city’s Gyanvapi mosque after which an oval object was found present on its premises. Based on the submissions of the Hindu petitioners, the civil court had 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 a fountain.
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