Supreme Court hints at remanding Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah case to Allahabad HC over notice lapse

New Delhi: Taking up the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Mosque dispute, the Supreme Court on Wednesday verbally indicated that it may remand the matter to the Allahabad High Court, because the notice was not issued to all plaintiffs before deciding who represents the devotees of Lord Krishna.

The development took place during the hearing of an appeal filed by the plaintiffs in suit no 1 (seeking the removal of the mosque from the disputed site). The appeal challenges the Allahabad High Court's decision allowing the plaintiffs in suit no 17 to be treated as representatives of all devotees of Lord Krishna.

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At the outset, a division bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva asked senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the plaintiffs, whether there is any development on discussions regarding some settlement among the plaintiffs.

Justice Kumar verbally remarked that at the last hearing, "someone had appeared and said some discussion is going on amongst the plaintiffs in the suits, some sort of settlement on the site or at least looming large on the horizon." In response, Divan said he was not aware of any settlement talks.

The bench then asked the other parties whether they were aware of any talks. When no response was given, the apex court said it would adjourn the matter for two weeks on the request of the respondents.

Before adjourning the matter, Justice Kumar orally stated that the high court should have put notice to the plaintiffs in suit no 1 that it would be deciding the issue regarding representatives of Lord Krishna. The judge also remarked that the application filed by the plaintiffs in suit no. 17 was on something else, while the high court ultimately decided something else.

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Suit no. 17 was filed in the name of the deity Bhagwan Shrikrishna Virajman through his next friend. The other plaintiffs in suit no. 17 are Surendra Kumar Gupta, Mahabir Sharma and Pradeep Kumar Shrivastava.

The high court had allowed an application filed by the plaintiffs in suit no. 17 under Order 1 Rule 8 of the CPC "in the manner that the plaintiff is permitted to sue in representative capacity on behalf of and for the benefit of all the devotees of Lord Shri Krishna..."