The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended its stay on a 2023 order by the Allahabad High Court allowing a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, The Indian Express reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan extended the stay while hearing a petition filed by the Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah, against the High Court order. The bench fixed the matter for hearing in the week beginning April 1.

On December 14, 2023, the High Court allowed a petition demanding that a court commissioner be appointed to inspect the mosque adjoining the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura.

The petitioners in the case have demanded full ownership of 13.37 acres of land around the mosque, claiming that it is the birthplace of the Hindu deity Krishna.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the petitioners, had told media persons that there were several indications of the presence of a Hindu temple at the site, but to know its actual position an advocate commissioner is required.

The suit was filed after the High Court on May 26, 2023, transferred to itself all the petitions pending before a Mathura court seeking various reliefs, including the removal of the mosque.

The Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah, challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court.

The mosque committee had argued that the High Court should have considered its petition for rejection of the plaint by the Hindu bodies before deciding on any miscellaneous applications filed in relation to the suit.

It had sought rejection of the petition on the grounds that the lawsuit was barred by the 1991 Places of Worship Special Provisions Act, which prohibits altering the religious character of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947.

On January 16, 2024, the Supreme Court stayed the Allahabad High Court order allowing the survey for the first time.

The extension on Wednesday came more than a month after the the Supreme Court on December 12 barred trial courts from passing orders, including survey directions, in pending lawsuits concerning the Places of Worship Special Provisions Act.

It also said that no new suits can be registered in any court across the country until further orders while it hears a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Act.

The order came amid growing concerns about the increasing number of lawsuits by Hindu parties claiming ownership of mosques and dargahs.

In November, violence erupted between Hindu and Muslim groups after a trial court ordered a survey of the 16th-century Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal. Five persons were killed in the violence.