A day after the Allahabad High Court directed expeditious hearing in the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Masjid dispute, two applications were filed on Friday in a Mathura court for an early appointment of a senior advocate commissioner for "verifying the presence of signs of a Hindu temple" at the mosque site so that they are not tampered with while the cases are decided legally.

The first application was submitted in the Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Jyoti Singh by Manish Yadav, who had also moved a writ on behalf of Bhgwan Shrikrishna Virajman for verifying the presence of signs of Hindu temple at the mosque, and the second one by a devotee named Dinesh.

After taking the copy of the two applications, the counsels for Uttar Pradesh Central Sunni Waqf Board and Shahi Masjid Idgah sought time to reply to the objections raised.

"We will submit the reply on next hearing," said Advocate Tanveer Ahmad, who is representing the Shahi Masjid Idgah.

The Court has fixed July 1 for the next hearing.

Over the past several years, at least 10 petitions have been filed in connection with the dispute and are pending with the Mathura court.

The petitioners have claimed that the Shahi Idgah mosque was built after demolishing a part of the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple which was spread on 13.37 acre land. The have been demanding that the mosque be removed and the land returned to the temple.

District Government Counsel Gaur also said on Friday the court was also requested to issue an injunction order against the opposite party on apprehension that they may either disfigure the signs of a temple from the site or remove them altogether, destroying the basic purpose of the suit.

Hearing a separate plea by Yadav on expediting related cases, Justice Salil Kumar Rai of the Allahabad High Court had Thursday directed the lower court concerned to decide within four months the temporary injunction application as well as a plea for bunching together the trial in all pending cases.

Yadav had filed a suit on December 15, 2020 with the lower court, demanding that the mosque, built adjacent to the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple, be removed. The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf board is the opposite party.



With PTI inputs