The Allahabad high court on Wednesday issued a notice to Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee and other opposition parties on the petition regarding survey of ‘wuzukhana’ of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque. The court observed that Archaeological Survey of India’s Gyanvapi survey report is “worth considering”.
The case was being heard by the single bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Aggarwal. Rakhi Singh, one of the five plaintiffs in the Shringar Gauri Worshipping suit 2022 (presently pending before the Varanasi Court), had reportedly filed the petition.
According to a report by Bar and Bench, Rakhi Singh has urged the high court to direct the ASI to survey the Gyanvapi mosque’s ablution pond (wuzukhana), except for the area where a ‘Shivalinga’ is said to be located, to determine the religious nature of the property in question (the Gyanvapi compound).
By her revision plea, Singh has challenged the correctness of a decision from a Varanasi district court which, in October 2023, had refused to direct the ASI to conduct such a survey.
In the 2023 order, Judge AK Vishwesha had noted that the Supreme Court, on May 17, 2022, had mandated the proper protection of the area where the ‘Shivalinga’ is believed to have been discovered. Therefore, the Varanasi court reasoned that directing the ASI to conduct a survey of the area would be inappropriate, as it would contravene the directive issued by the Supreme Court, the report stated.
The ASI report, submitted to the court last month in a sealed cover, concluded that “there existed a Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing structure” at the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
The ASI was tasked by the Varanasi district court in July 2023 to conduct a scientific survey of the mosque and ascertain if it was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”.
(details to follow)
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