New Delhi: The Supreme Court would hear on January 15 an appeal filed by the mosque management committee against an order of the Allahabad High Court dismissing its plea challenging the maintainability of pleas filed by the Hindu side in the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah masjid at Mathura.
According to the apex court website, the matter is listed before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar.
Appeal was not maintainable at this stage, Hindu side submitted before apex court
One of the lawyers representing the Hindu side earlier on December 9 told the apex court bench that the Muslim side could have filed an intra-court appeal in the High Court and the appeal was not maintainable at this stage.
Hindu side urged apex court to dismiss Muslim side appeal
Urging the apex court bench to dismiss the Muslim side appeal, advocate Barun Sinha, who appeared for the Hindu side referred to the Allahabad High Court rules and submitted that “In view of Chapter 8 of the Allahabad High Court Rules, a special appeal before the division bench of the high court would be maintainable” and added that an appeal in the Supreme Court was not “maintainable against the order of a single judge bench of the High Court and an intra-court appeal in the High Court should have been filed.”
Hearing the matter, CJI Khanna earlier said that he prima facie felt that an intra-court appeal would lie against the August 1 order of the single judge of the High Court.
What did the High Court say?
The High Court’s single bench had on August 1 last year rejected the submissions of the Muslim side, which said that the plea filed by the Hindu side was barred under the Places of Worship Act, Wakf Act, Limitation Act and Specific Relief Act. The single bench of the High Court held that the suits filed by the Hindu side “do not appear to be barred by any provisions of the Wakf Act, 1995; the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991; the Specific Relief Act, 1963; the Limitation Act, 1963 and Order XIII Rule 3A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908”.
