New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has held that the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi land title dispute suits are not barred by the Places of Worship Act of 1991, rejecting challenges by the mosque authorities to five suits filed by Hindu worshippers. A petition against a lower court’s direction green-lighting an Archeological Survey of India survey of the premises was also rejected by a bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had, on August 4, upheld an order by the Allahabad high court allowing the ASI to conduct its investigation of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, where Hindu plaintiffs seek to restore an allegedly ancient temple.
The high court has now rejected pleas filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee and and the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, challenging five of the suits on the matter. The Committee had argued that the suits are prohibited by the Places of Worship Act (Special Provisions) Act of 1991. Among other things, the Act notes that “…the religious character of a place of worship existing on the 15th day of August, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day.”
The judge’s logic is based on his claim that although the 1991 “places an embargo upon the conversion of a place of worship…existing on 15th day of 1947” and that the “religious character of a place of worship existing on the 15th day of 1947 is to continue” and cannot be challenged in court, “the question which crops up for consideration is as to what is the religious character of the place in dispute.”
Accepting this reading of the 1991 law, Justice Agarwal says in his judgment,
“From the reading of the definitions provided under the Act, it is clear that the Legislature had defined place of worship such as temple, mosque, gurudwara, church, monastery etc. but not the religious character, maintaining distance between the two. It is the Court who has to find out from the facts and circumstances of each case as to the religious character of place of worship.”
The Gyanvapi mosque is one of three places of Islamic worship that Hindutva organisations recognise as part of their plan to convert to sites of Hindu worship, along with the Babri Masjid (now destroyed) and the Shahi Idgah at Mathura.
The case has been called an example and a litmus test for the sanctity of the Act.
The court, according to LiveLaw, said that the Gyanvapi compound can have either a “Muslim character or a Hindu character” and that this cannot be decided at the stage of framing issues.
“The suit affects two major communities of the country…We direct the trial court to expeditiously decide the suit in six months,” the bench said.
The court also added that the ASI survey conducted in one suit shall also be filed in connection with the other suits. It allowed a lower court to direct the ASI to conduct the survey.