New Delhi: The Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Mukti Nirman Trust in Mathura has moved the Supreme Court against the Allahabad high court’s dismissal of its request for a survey of the premises of the Shahi Idgah mosque that neighbours the Mathura Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple.The Mathura mosque is the third after the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi that Hindutva organisations claim are illegal.In 2019, the Supreme Court, in a controversial judgment allowed for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site where Hindutva activists brought down the Babri Masjid in 1992. The Varanasi mosque dispute has heightened in the past year and earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld an order by the Allahabad high court allowing the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct an investigation of the mosque.In Mathura, the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Mukti Nirman Trust has claimed in its petition that the mosque side is “intentionally attempting to seize control of the sacred worship place, thereby preventing the petitioner and other devoted followers from practicing their religious rituals on the premises,” according to a report on Indian Express.The Trust in its petition has claimed that the Idgah mosque authorities have been using the premises as restrooms and for other necessities and that they are “continuously digging and destroying Hindu symbols, temple pillars, and other significant elements of the temple.”In July, the Allahabad high court had dismissed its application for a “scientific survey” of the premises, where it believes the mosque had been constructed after the destruction of a temple. The high court was upholding a trial court’s order.The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, says that a mosque, temple, church or any place of public worship in existence on August 15 1947, will retain the same religious character that it had on that day – irrespective of its history – and cannot be changed by the courts or the government.
