Krishna Janmabhoomi Case : Supreme Court Plans To Remand To High Court Dispute Over Who Represents All Devotees
In the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Mosque dispute, the Supreme Court today orally indicated that it will remand the matter to the Allahabad High Court because the notice was not issued to all plaintiffs before deciding who represents the devotees of Lord Krishna.
The Supreme Court is hearing the appeal filed by plaintiffs in suit no. 1 (filed seeking the removal of the mosque from the contested site) challenging the Allahabad High Court's decision allowing the plaintiffs in suit no 17 to be treated as representatives of all devotees of Lord Krishna.
At the outset today, a bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva asked Senior Advocate Shyam Divan(for the plaintiffs) if there is any development on the discussion regarding some settlement going on between the plaintiffs.
Justice Kumar said: "On the last date, someone had appeared and said some discussion is going on amongst the plaintiffs in the suits, some sort of settlement on the site or at least looming large on the horizon."
To this, Divan responded that he is not aware of any settlement talks. The bench then asked other parties if they are aware of any settlement talks. When no response was given, the Court stated it would adjourn the matter for two weeks on the request made by the respondents 9 to 13.
Before adjourning, Justice Kumar orally stated that the High Court should have put notice to plaintiffs in suit 1 that it would be deciding the issue regarding representatives of Lord Krishna. The Judge also remarked that the application filed by plaintiffs in suit no. 17 was on something else and the High Court ultimately decided something else.
He said: "One day we are told there is some settlement going on, [but] Mr Divan is not even aware...We have already indicated that we are inclined to send it back because the High Court didn't put notice to all the plaintiffs that this is what it was proposing to do. The notice was given to them, but the application was for something else. We are planning to send it back in any event."
It may be recalled that the application in Suit No. 17 sought permission only to treat the defendants as representatives of the Muslim community. In July 2025, the High Court, while allowing the defendants in the suit to be treated as the representatives of the Muslim community, also allowed the plaintiffs in suit no. 17 to be treated as the representatives of all devotees.
Suit number 17 was filed in the name of the deity Bhagwan Shrikrishna Virajman through next friend. The other plaintiffs in suit no.17 are Surendra Kumar Gupta, Mahabir Sharma and Pradeep Kumar Shrivastava. The High Court had allowed an application filed by the plaintiffs in suit no.17 under Order 1 Rule 8 of CPC “in the manner that the plaintiff is permitted to sue in representative capacity on behalf of and for the benefit of all the devotees of Lord Shri Krishna...”
There are 18 suits on the issue, which the Allahabad High Court has transferred to itself; 15 of them are consolidated, and the remaining are listed separately.
Challenging this order of the Allahabad High Court, the plaintiffs in suit no.1, which is also filed in the name of the deity through next friend, approached the Supreme Court. The other plaintiffs in suit no.1 are Ranjana Agnihotri, Pravesh Kumar, Rajesh Mani Tripathi, Karunesh Kumar Shukla, Shivaji Singh, and Tripurapuri Tiwari.