The Supreme Court on Tuesday put in abeyance a survey of the Shahi Eidgah mosque abutting the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura by an advocate-commissioner, observing that the plea made by the Hindu side for the survey was “very vague” and that some important legal issues also arise in the matter.

“Your application for commissioner was very vague. It had to be specific. This is wrong… You have to be very clear what you want him (commissioner) for, but you leave it to the court. It was an omnibus application,” observed a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta.

Staying the Allahabad high court order of December 14 for the appointment of an advocate-commissioner to oversee the survey of the mosque, the bench was emphatic that the plea of the Hindu plaintiffs did not specify the rationale behind the plea.

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“You cannot say that appoint a commissioner in terms of the prayers in the plaint. You must be specific about what exactly you are asking for. Can an application be made like this? We have reservations about the application. It’s so vague… You cannot make an omnibus application like this,” the bench told senior counsel Shyam Divan, who appeared for the Hindu plaintiffs in the case.

While Divan protested a complete stay on the order, adding the high court may be allowed to at least work out the modalities of the survey, the bench replied that the commission shall not be implemented for now.

The court further said that apart from the questions over the application for the appointment of an advocate-commissioner, legal issues over passing an interim order without rendering a prima facie satisfaction regarding the maintainability of the suit also arose in the case.

Advocate Tasneem Ahmadi appeared for the Idgah committee and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Wakf Board.

The bench fixed the next hearing of the case on January 23 when the other batch of petitions, challenging the high court order deciding to hear nearly 18 suits relating to Krishna Janmasthan-Shahi Eidgah land dispute by transferring them to itself from various civil courts in Mathura, will also be taken up.

The Supreme Court is seized of the challenge to a May 26 order of the Allahabad high court, transferring to itself all suits filed by Hindu parties claiming right over the mosque land.

The mosque committee has argued that it did not have the financial wherewithal to defend the suits in the Allahabad high court which is 600 kilometres away and would prefer having it in Delhi which is separated by only 150 kilometre distance.

Multiple suits regarding the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Eidgah Mosque land dispute pending before various courts in Mathura have a common demand to reclaim the 13.37-acre land on which the mosque stands to be returned to the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust.

The mosque abuts the temple and the suits have sought to annual a compromise entered between the mosque committee and Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sangh in 1968 allowing the continue at the place where it currently stands.