Demolition drive near Krishna Janmabhoomi: Supreme Court disposes plea and asks petitioners to move suit court

Today, the Supreme Court bench including Justice Sanjay Kumar, Justice SVN Bhatti, and Justice Aniruddha Bose heard a plea related to a demolition drive near the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura, carried out by railway authorities. The bench disposed of the plea and permitted the residents (who sought to be evicted) to approach the local court. During the Court proceedings today, Senior Advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen appeared for petitioners and said “The railway authorities sought time from the lower court saying that they needed instructions. Time was granted till August 14, when an application for an interim stay was also supposed to be considered. On that day, the court was closed. Taking advantage of this, they started destroying homes. While the suit for title was pending, these homes were destroyed.” Justice Bose further said “He came to this court asking for breathing time, which was granted. Now, we can dispose of this petition.” SA Sen argued, “The whole suit would be rendered infructuous if they start moving the residents out.” 

Apart from this, Justice Bose while hearing the matter suggested filing the matter in the lower court against the residents being evicted from their homes. The Senior counsel stated that an application for the same has already been filed and was scheduled to be heard on the day the demolishing of the houses began. The Court further said “The title will have to be decided by the suit court. The petitioner has his whole remedy in front of the suit court, and then provisions for appeal. He may be entitled to damages also. For all that will have to be decided by the suit court. We cannot run parallel proceedings along with that court. It’s a tall case that you have become owners by adverse possession. For that, you will have to establish a very strong prime facie case. A writ court is not the proper forum for that.” After hearing all the contentions, the bench said “The relief claimed in this petition, in our opinion, is better examined in a suit. As proceedings are pending, we dispose of this writ petition, giving liberty to the petitioner to apply for relief before the suit court.” Moreover, the bench also refused to extend the status quo granted on August 16 by the Supreme Court.