Krishna Janmabhoomi: Supreme Court Stays Demolition Near Mathura Temple, Orders Status Quo

Supreme Court, on Wednesday, has stayed the demolition by railway authorities to remove encroachment from the railway land near the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura. Status Quo has been ordered for 10 days by the top court.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Status Quo on the demolition being carried out near Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple in Mathura by the Railway authorities to remove encroachment from the railways’ land. The Apex court issued notice to the Railways and the Uttar Pradesh government and the stayed demolition for the next ten days.

An apex court bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice SVN Bhatti heard the case and ordered the Status Quo. Senior advocate Prashanto Sen argued that except for 70 houses, everything has been demolished and if this is not stopped immediately, the hearing will become pointless.

Hearing the Prashanto Sen’s plea filed against the demolition drive by the railways, the top court issued the notice to the Railways and sought a reply in this regard, besides ordering Status Quo. The matter will now be heard after a week.

The petitioners have claimed that they have been settled here for more than 100 years and that this demolition is not right.

What Is The Case About

The case pertains to a rail line that connects Mathura and Vrindavan, but for the last few years, the rail service on this route has been closed. Due to this reason, people have built pucca houses on both the sides of the railway lines.

Now, the railways plans to upgrade the current meter gauge to a broad gauge line for which the encroachment has to be cleared. The Railways has given a notice to the people living there, not once but thrice; it has been of no use which is why the authorities have now started bulldozing the encroachments.

The petitioner, Yakub Shah, who is a resident of Mathura’s Nai Basti, filed a petition against the demolition drive, claiming that people have been living here for more than hundred years. Yakub had filed a peition against this drive in the lower court and also the Allahabad High Court, but the same remains pending and the railways started the demolition drive.

What is ‘Status Quo’

Status Quo is used as a legal term for ‘the current situation’ or ‘the existing state of affairs’, i.e. the way things are now. It simply means that things must remain the way they are, there should be no changes.