The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, extended its January 16, 2024, order staying the Allahabad High Court’s order directing a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Masjid Idgah complex located adjacent to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple, in Mathura.

Extending the stay of the survey of the Shahi Masjid Idgah complex, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K V Viswanathan deferred to the week commencing from April 1, 2025, hearing on three petitions by the Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah, and Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board.

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The issues involved in three petitions include challenge to the high court order clubbing and consolidating all the suits relating to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple-Shahi Masjid Idgah dispute pending before the Mathura civil court and transferring them to itself and ordering the survey of the Shahi Masjid Idgah complex by a court appointed advocate commissioner.

The Supreme Court on January 10, 2025, had expressed its disinclination to interfere with the Allahabad High Court’s order to consolidate or club all suits relating to the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Masjid Idgah dispute and hear them together.

Without passing any order and posting the matter for the first week of April, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar on January 10, 2025, had said that clubbing all suits/ applications related to the case and hearing them together will benefit both the sides in the case since it will avoid multiple proceedings.

“Why should we interfere in the issue of consolidation? What difference does it make if it is consolidated? It is in your benefit and their benefit also that multiple proceedings are avoided. We will adjourn this. I do not know why everything needs to be contested. Re-list in the first week of April 2025,” Chief Justice Khanna had told the senior lawyer appearing for the Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah.

The controversy is related to Shahi Masjid Idgah at Mathura, which is alleged to have been built after demolishing the temple at the birthplace of Lord Krishna.

The civil suit was filed on behalf of a Hindu deity Bhagwan Shri Krishna Virajman and certain Hindu devotees claiming the mosque was built over Krishna Janmabhoomi land and sought its removal from its current site.