In the Shahi Idgah Mosque-Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi dispute, the civil judge (senior division) on Thursday decided to first hear the Masjid panel’s application challenging the maintainability of the suit.
Advocate Tanveer Ahmed, lawyer and secretary of the mosque management committee, said the panel would now begin submissions on its application under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure on Monday.
The civil court decided that the matter would be heard on a day-to-day basis with neither side seeking adjournments.
Advocate Mahendra Pratap Singh, the Mathura resident who had filed the suit and had been arguing for his application to be heard first, said he would challenge the order of the district court in the days to come. Mr. Singh had sought a commission to be set up by the court to conduct a survey of the mosque premises.
Of the civil suits in the matter currently pending in lower courts, Mr. Singh’s has progressed the farthest so far.
While advocate Ranjana Agnihotri had filed a suit before Mr. Singh, it came back to the civil court only in May after having been dismissed once already.
Advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain, and their team, are representing Ms. Agnihotri in the suit in Mathura.
The Jains and Ms. Agnihotri are defending some of the Hindu plaintiffs in the Gyanvapi mosque dispute. They are the plaintiffs in a Delhi suit, seeking to prove that the site of Qutub Minar was a temple.
