The Supreme Court on Monday disposed of a petition against the demolition drive by the Railways authorities to clear alleged illegal constructions on railway land near Krishna Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura. A bench, comprising justices Aniruddha Bose, Sanjay Kumar and SVN Bhatti, said the Railways had informed about the completion of the anti-encroachment drive.
The top court asked the petitioners to move the trial court for appropriate relief.
"The relief claimed in this petition, in our opinion, is better examined in a suit as proceedings are pending (before jurisdictional civil court). We dispose of the petition with liberty to the petitioner to apply for relief before the civil suit," the bench said.
"We have not made any comment on merit in this matter and all the points are left open to be determined by the suit court," the top court further said.
Over a hundred houses were razed using bulldozers before the Supreme Court had stayed the demolition drive in an order on August 16 for 10 days. On August 25, the top court had refused further extension of the interim order.
In the previous hearing on August 16, the Supreme Court had issued notices to the Centre and others seeking their responses on the petition filed by petitioner Yakub Shah.
The petitioner had told the Supreme Court that 100 houses were bulldozed and 70-80 houses were left. "Whole thing will become infructuous. They conducted the exercise on a day when Uttar Pradesh courts were closed," the petitioner had argued, PTI reported.
In its affidavit, the Railways claimed that the petitioner gave its action a "communal overtone" by linking it with disputed religious premises, IANS reported.
The Railways said the razing was done in Mathura as it undertook a project to convert the 'meter gauge', which had been there since pre-Independence era, to 'broad gauge' for running high-speed or express trains connecting Vrindavan with Mathura Junction Railway Station.