New Delhi: The Varanasi district court on Friday, July 21, ordered a survey of Gyanvapi Mosque by the Archaeological Society of India (ASI) except for the barricaded ‘wazukhana’ in the premises, which was sealed based on an earlier Supreme Court order.
The court instructed the ASI to submit its “scientific survey” by August 4. Wazukhana, where the Muslims do their ritual ablutions before offering namaz, will not be part of the survey. The Supreme Court’s order to seal the spot came after Hindu litigants claimed that a Shivling existed there before a mosque came up on it.
The order by the court of A.K. Vishvesh on Friday upheld the petition of a group of Hindus seeking a survey to determine if the Mughal-era mosque was built at the site of an earlier Hindu temple. Scores of people who gathered outside the court welcomed the news with slogans of “Har Har Mahadev”, the news agency PTI reported.
The next hearing in the case will be heard on August 4. The court had on July 14 reserved its order after hearing both Hindu and Muslim sides.
Special counsel for the Gyanvapi matters before the Varanasi court, Rajesh Mishra, told Indian Express, “The application filed by the four women seeking a survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises by the ASI was allowed by the district court. The court has said that the survey must be done without causing any harm to the structure. The court has also said that the survey will exclude the area which was sealed last year after the Shivling was found there. The wuzu khana area where the Shivling was found was sealed on orders of the Supreme Court.”
Reacting to the court order, the mosque management’s counsel Mohammed Tauhid Khan said it will challenge the order. “It is not acceptable and we will move to a higher court against it. This survey could cause damage to the mosque,” the news agency quoted him as saying.
Lawyer Tauheed Khan, who represented the Anjuman Intezamia Mosque committee in the court, said the Muslim side will decide its next action after going through the written order.
While the Hindu petitioners had in May petitioned the court to direct the ASI to survey the complex, the Muslim side had filed its objection to the same.
According to the Hindu litigants, the mosque was built on the site of the original Kashi Vishwanath temple. Muslim litigants, however, maintain that the mosque was built on Waqf premises, and that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 barred changing the character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.