Demolition operation by Railway authorities near Krishna Janmabhoomi: Supreme Court instructs to maintain status quo for ten days

Today, the Supreme Court issued an order instructing that the status quo should be preserved in relation to a demolition operation being conducted by railway authorities in Nai Basti near the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura. The matter was mentioned before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court including Justice Sanjay Kumar, Justice SVN Bhatti, and Justice Aniruddha Bose. The order was passed granting interim relief to the residents of that area living since 1880 as the demolition operation affects the house of residents. The same was argued by Senior Advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen as well as the senior counsel told the SC bench that “When we approached this court, all courts in Uttar Pradesh were closed. Taking advantage of that, the authorities have bulldozed over 100 houses. There are some 200 houses in the area. Only 70-80 are left. The whole thing will become infructuous”. Hearing this, the bench said, “Notice issued. Service to be effected upon the advocate-on-record for the Union of India. Let there be status quo as regards the subject premises for a period of ten days. List after one week”. 

On August 9, 2023, the Railways commenced the demolition work as a result, an interim application was filed before a civil court against the demolition the very next day. The petitioner, Yakub Shah (66-year-old resident), was represented by SA Sen who was assisted by Advocates Aaron Shaw,  Kaushik Chaudhry, and Radha Tarkar. An interim application filed by the petitioner was to be heard by the civil court on August 14 but due to a resolution passed by the State Bar Council, the civil court in Mathura and the High Court of Allahabad were closed on 14 August. Due to this, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court. After hearing the matter, the bench issued a notice for maintaining the status quo for ten days.