A court in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday dismissed a petition asking for the removal of a mosque near an area claimed to be the birthplace of the deity Krishna, NDTV reported.

The petition had been filed on behalf of Hindu deity Bhagwan Shri Krishna Virajman, seeking the removal of the Shahi Idgah adjacent to the Shri Krishna temple complex in Mathura. The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Committee of Management of Trust of Shahi Idgah had been arraigned as defendants.

The suit had claimed that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb demolished a part of a temple at the site believed to be the birthplace of Krishna, and thus sought the removal of the mosque next to it. “It is a matter of fact and history that Aurangzeb ruled over the country from 1658-1707 AD and he being a staunch follower of Islam had issued orders for demolition of a large number of Hindu religious places and temples including the temple standing at the birthplace of Lord Krishna at Katra Keshav Dev, Mathura in the year 1669-’70 AD,” the suit said.

The court refused to admit the suit citing a 1991 law that bars litigation that alters status quo of any religious place of worship as it stood in 1947.

The suit had claimed that the trust, with the help of some members of the Muslim community, erected the mosque by encroaching upon the area of the temple. It also alleged that the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan, which is the governing body of the temple complex, in 1968 entered into an illegal agreement with the Shahi Idgah trust with the intention of land-grabbing.

The Mathura court dismissed the plea on the same day that another court acquitted all 32 accused of a criminal conspiracy in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh were among those accused of criminal conspiracy and other charges in the nearly three-decades-old case.