Clarion India
The Allahabad High Court’s decision to allow a survey of the Shahi Eidgah mosque in Mathura not only violated a 1991 law on the places of worship, but also an agreement made between Hindus and Muslims in 1968, said All India Muslim Personal Law Board in a press statement.
The high court on Thursday also agreed to the appointment of an advocate-commissioner to oversee the survey of the mosque, which, the petitioners claim, holds signs suggesting that it was a Hindu temple once. The survey will be conducted in the same way as was done at the Gyanvapi temple in Varanasi.
“It [the decision] is also against an agreement (made in accordance with an Act) under which local Hindus and Muslims had divided 13.37 acres of the land between the Eidgah and the temple. This agreement was made between Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan and Shahi Eidgah Mosque Trust, according to which 10.9 acres was handed over to Krishna Janmabhoomi and 2.5 acres to the mosque after which it was decided that the dispute was resolved forever,” said AIMPLB’s spokesperson Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas on Friday.
He said during the Babri Masjid dispute, the Central government in 1991 passed a law related to places of worship to get rid of all such disputes forever. According to this law, the status of places of worship that existed at the time of the country’s independence on 15 August 1947, will still remain the same. “It was expected that no new controversy would arise but the elements who hate peace and harmony of the country and those who want to fulfill their political interests by creating hatred between Hindus and Muslims will, probably, not allow this to happen,” he noted.
The spokesperson, meanwhile, welcomed the decision of the Shahi Eidgah Trust which said that it would challenge the court’s decision in the Supreme Court.
