New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered status quo with regard to the demolition drive being carried out by railway authorities to clear alleged illegal constructions near the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura. A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose, Sanjay Kumar and SVN Bhatti issued notice to the Centre and others in the matter.


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“Let there be status quo as regards the subject premises for a period of 10 days. List after one week,” the bench said. The lawyer, appearing for the petitioner Yakub Shah, told the bench that 100 houses have been bulldozed.  “There are 70-80 houses left. The whole thing will become infructuous. They conducted the exercise on a day when Uttar Pradesh courts were closed,” he said.


The plea was mentioned before a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud for an urgent listing twice. The CJI observed that the plea against the demolition is pending before a lower court and no order barring the authorities from demolishing has been passed as yet.


The present plea sought a pause on the demolition drive, which is the subject matter of a petition before the lower court until the interim application for stay is decided. According to the petitioner, the action of the Railways to proceed with the demolition on a date when an interim application for stay was fixed for a hearing is illegal.


The petitioners have argued that they have no other place to live and they have been staying at the site for more than 100 years.