Bengaluru(PTI): The friendly conversation between Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn and Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeep took a political turn with former Karnataka chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy joining the debate and insisting that Hindi is like any other language in India and not the national language.

"Hindi was never & will never be our National Language. It is the duty of every Indian to respect linguistic diversity of our country. Each language has its own rich history for its people to be proud of. I am proud to be a Kannadiga!! Congress stalwart Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The JD(S) second-in-command Kumaraswamy too aired a view similar to Siddaramaiah and backed Sudeep.

"Actor @KicchaSudeep saying that Hindi is not a National Language is correct. There is nothing to find fault in his statement. Actor @ajaydevgn is not only hyper in nature but also shows his ludicrous behaviour.

According to him, Hindi is also one of the languages like Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi.

"India is a garden of several languages. Land of multi cultures. Let there be no attempts to disrupt this," he added in his series of tweets on Thursday on the issue.

Just because a large population speaks Hindi, it doesn't become a national language, Kumaraswamy said adding, less than nine states, Kashmir to Kanyakumari, have Hindi as second or third language or not even that.

"This being situation what is the truth in Ajay Devgan's statement? What do you mean by not to dub? Kumaraswamy sought to know.

According to him, from the beginning, Hindi' based political parties at the Centre have been making efforts to destroy regional languages. The Congress started 'suppressing' regional languages and that is being continued by the BJP, he charged.

Bollywood actor Devgn and Sudeep engaged in a 'brotherly argument' on Twitter on the topic of whether Hindi is a national language or not.

However, Sudeep clarified that the context in which he made the statement was different from the way it was perceived and that it was not intended to provoke, hurt or start a debate.

The trigger for the argument was Sudeep's statement a few days ago during a function in Bengaluru where the who's who of the Kannada film industry celebrated the nationwide success of 'KGF-2' starring Yash. When the compere of the event said 'KGF-2' had a pan-India effect, Sudeep said Hindi is no more a national language.

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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended its stay on the Allahabad High Court's order that permitted a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex in Mathura.

The complex is located adjacent to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple, a site of significant religious importance for Hindus.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan said it will defer the hearing on the plea of the ‘Committee of Management of Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah’ against the court-monitored survey of the mosque complex in the week commencing April 1.

The CJI said there were three issues pending now with the apex court and they are “the issue of an intra-court appeal (against consolidation of lawsuits filed by the Hindu litigants), the other one is the Act (challenge to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991) itself. List in the week commencing April 1.”

The bench said in the meanwhile the interim order of the Allahabad High Court staying the court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex will continue to operate.

The top court, on January 16 last year, had first stayed the operation of the December 14, 2023 order of the high court.

The high court had allowed a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex and agreed to the appointment of a court commissioner to oversee it.

The Hindu side claims the premises hold signs suggesting that a temple once existed at the site.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for the Hindu parties, had said the appeal of the mosque committee was filed against the December 14, 2023 order of the high court and connected orders in the matter had become infructuous.

"All these petitions have become infructuous as the high court has pronounced its order later," he said.

Jain referred to the subsequent order of the high court by which it rejected a plea of the Muslim parties challenging the maintainability of 18 cases related to the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute in Mathura, and ruled that the religious character of the mosque needs to be determined.

The high court had dismissed the Muslim side's contention that the suits filed by the Hindu litigants relating to the dispute over the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple and the adjacent mosque violated the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 and therefore were not maintainable.

The 1991 Act prohibits changing the religious character of any shrine from what existed on the day of the country's Independence. It exempted only the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute from its purview.

In Mathura, a suit was filed in the court of Civil Judge Senior Division (III) for shifting the Shahi Idgah mosque, claiming that it was constructed on a part of the 13.37 acre land of the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust.

The Hindu side had requested the high court to conduct the original trial like it had done in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title dispute.

While allowing the plea for a court-monitored survey, the high court had said that no harm should be caused to the structure during the exercise which it indicated could be overseen by a three-member commission of advocates.