National News
Supreme Court To Hear Mosque Committee’s Plea In Shahi Eidgah- Krishna Janmabhoomi Dispute On January 15
The Supreme Court would on January 15 hear a plea of the mosque management committee against an order rejecting its petition in the Shahi Eidgah- Krishna Janmabhoomi dispute in Mathura, UP.
A single judge bench of the Allahabad High Court on August 1, last year, rejected the plea of the Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Eidgah, challenging the maintainability of 15 cases related to the temple-mosque dispute in Mathura, and ruled the “religious character” of Shahi Eidgah needed to be determined.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, on December 9, last year commenced the final hearing in the case and the matter is set to come up before the bench on January 15, according to the SC website.
One of the Hindu parties, represented by advocate Barun Sinha, had argued the mosque committee could have moved the Allahabad High Court against the single judge’s order over the dispute.
He said the plea of the mosque committee was not maintainable in the top court at the present stage.
The lawyer referred to the Allahabad High Court rules and argued, “In view of Chapter 8 of the Allahabad High Court Rules, a special appeal before the division bench of the high court would be maintainable.”
He said an appeal in the Supreme Court was not “maintainable against the order of a single judge bench of the high court” and an intra-court appeal in the high court should have been filed. The lawyer therefore sought the plea to be dismissed.
On November 29, last year, the CJI-led bench agreed to hear the plea.
“This we will hear at length. We will take it up on December 9, at 2 pm… We have to decide what is the legal position,” the CJI said.
Speaking for the bench, the CJI prima facie felt that an intra-court appeal would lie against the single judge bench’s August 1 order of the high court.
“We will certainly give you an opportunity to argue,” the bench said.
The mosque committee said the suits filed by Hindu litigants over the dispute over the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple, and the adjoining mosque, violated the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, and were therefore not maintainable.
The 1991 Act prohibits changing the religious character of any shrine from what existed on the day of the country’s Independence. The Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute was however kept outside it purview.
The cases filed by the Hindu party side seek the “removal” of the Aurangzeb-era mosque, claiming it was built after the demolition a temple that once stood there.
The high court said the 1991 Act did not define the term “religious character” and the “disputed” place couldn’t have a dual religious character — of a temple and a mosque, which are “adverse to each other” — at the same time.
“Either the place is a temple or a mosque. Thus, I find that the religious character of the disputed place as it existed on August 15, 1947, is to be determined by documentary as well as oral evidence led by both the parties,” the high court said.
The high court concluded the cases did “not appear to be barred by any provisions of the Wakf Act, 1995, the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, the Specific Relief Act, 1963, the Limitation Act, 1963 and Order XIII Rule 3A of the Code of Civil Procedure Code, 1908”.
Hindu side’s advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain had said his client would move the Supreme Court for vacating its stay on a previous Allahabad High Court order allowing the mosque’s survey.
The mosque management committee and the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board argued the suits were barred under Places of Worship Act and other laws.
On May 31, 2024, the Allahabad High Court reserved its judgment on the maintainability plea after hearing both sides.
But the court reopened the hearing at the request of Shahi Eidgah counsel Mehmood Pracha.
The Mathura dispute mirrors the legal tussle in Varanasi, where the Gyanvapi mosque and the Kashi Vishwanath temple are located next to each other.
Hyderabad, Oct 22: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Wednesday started questioning Dr Pachipalli Namratha and other accused in Chanchalguda Jail here in connection with the illegal surrogacy racket.
As part of the probe into alleged money laundering, the ED officials were questioning Dr Namratha, her son Pachipala Jayanth Krishna, Muthipeta Nandini, Dhanasri Santoshi Chitikireddi Kalyani, following permission granted by a city court.
The Nampally criminal court permitted the ED to interrogate the accused in jail till October 28.
Last month, the ED conducted searches in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with an illegal surrogacy racket run by Dr Namratha alias Athluri Namratha in the name of Universal Srusthi Fertility & Research Centre
The Central agency had seized incriminating documents, details of couples defrauded and properties in possession of Dr Namratha.
The agency initiated the investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by the Gopalapuram Police Station, Hyderabad, for fraud, cheating, criminal conspiracy, illegal surrogacy and child trafficking.
Busted in August this year, the racket involved cheating couples through fraudulent IVF and surrogacy packages, infant trafficking, forged records and illegal operations even after the clinic’s license was cancelled in 2021.
About 25 accused were arrested in the case, which is being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Hyderabad Central Crime Station.
Searches conducted by the ED resulted in the seizure of documents, which revealed that Dr Namratha was offering such services to couples across India in different centres in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Kolkata, etc.
The seized documents also revealed that Dr Namratha was involved in these activities for more than 10 years.
She created legal documents in the form of surrogacy agreements to project that the childless couples and carrier (surrogate) themselves approached her, and she was just providing the surrogacy services.
Mumbai: A 37-year-old woman died after a fire broke out in a one-storey structure at Gorai No. 2 in Borivali West on Wednesday afternoon. Two men were safely rescued from the first floor using the staircase. The fire was brought under control after two and a half hours. According to officials, the woman who succumbed to her injuries was trapped in the bathroom when the fire started.
The fire broke out at Nalanda Cooperative Housing Society near Mangalmurti Hospital in Gorai No. 2 around 11:45 AM on Wednesday. Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) personnel, along with local ward officials, rushed to the spot to carry out firefighting operations. According to a fire official, “The fire was confined to decorative materials, wooden furniture, clothes, etc., in a ground-floor shed measuring approximately 15×40 feet, as well as to metal and wooden furniture and clothes on the first floor of an adjacent ground-plus-one structure.”
As per the information received from the MFB, Two men were safely rescued from the first floor using the staircase. A woman, identified as Pooja Vinaychandra Parekh, was rescued from the bathroom on the first floor and rushed to Lotus Hospital. However, she succumbed to her injuries before being admitted, as she had sustained 50% burns. The exact cause of the fire will be determined after a detailed investigation, said a fire official.
Mumbai: Seven people were injured when a portion of a ground-plus-one structure collapsed in Madanpura on Wednesday afternoon. Of the injured, five were treated on an OPD basis at a private hospital and discharged. The remaining two are currently receiving treatment at the civic-run Nair Hospital. According to hospital authorities, their condition is stable.
According to information received from the BMC’s Disaster Management Cell, the incident occurred around 12:45 PM at the Fanuswala building in Madanpura. A civic official stated that a portion of the first floor of the ground-plus-one structure collapsed, injuring seven people. Fire brigade personnel and the local civic ward team rushed to the spot and carried out rescue operations.
The injured were moved to nearby hospitals, where Gulam Rasool (24) and Mohammad Sayyad (59) were admitted to Nair Hospital; their condition is said to be stable. Meanwhile, Arif (29), Sattar (35), Mohammad (35), Samsul (29), and Catherine (45) were treated at Bhatia Hospital on an OPD basis and later discharged, confirmed the official.
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