Plea on renaming Mathura's Shahi Idgah Masjid junked

THE SC SAID ENTERTAINING THE ISSUE AS A PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) WAS NOT MAINTAINABLE

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The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding an archaeological survey at Mathura's Shahi Idgah Mosque and the declaration of the site as "Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi", noting that multiplicity of litigation was not proper when a bundle of civil suits on the issue were already being adjudicated.

"Let's not have multiplicity of litigation. You filed it as a PIL, which is why it was rejected. File it as otherwise, the court will see," said a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, pointing out that suits in the case were pending before the Allahabad High Court.

While the lawyer appearing for the petitioner in the case argued that the PIL was rejected by the Allahabad High Court last October on the ground that some suits remained pending on the issue, the court was emphatic that entertaining the issue as a PIL was not maintainable.