On Thursday, the Supreme Court directed the committee of the Gyanvapi mosque to file petition in the Allahabad High Court in opposition to a Varanasi district court’s ruling permitting Hindu priest to offer prayers in front of idols in the mosque’s basement.
Gyanvapi Mosque Committee reaches SC
The Supreme Court registrar was approached by attorneys for the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, who requested an immediate hearing. They were informed by the registrar that they were invited to appear before the High Court by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
Advocacy Nizam Pasha and Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi stated in their appeal that the local government, acting in “hot haste” in accordance with the directive, has sent a large police force to the scene and is currently chopping down the grills on the mosque’s southern side.
“There is no reason for the administration to undertake this task in hot haste in the dead of the night as the order passed by the Trial Court had already given them one week to make the necessary arrangements. The obvious reason for such unseemly haste is that the administration in collusion with the plaintiffs is trying to foreclose any attempt by the Mosque Managing Committee to avail of their remedies against the said order by presenting them with a fait accompli,” their letter said.
Varansi court’s verdict
The district court decided on Wednesday that a priest can offer prayers in front of the idols in the Gyanvapi Masjid’s crypt, which is a significant move in the ongoing legal dispute over the mosque next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
The petitioner, who asserts that his grandpa performed puja at the cellar until December 1993, and a “pujari” chosen by the Kashi Vishwanath temple trust would lead the prayers, which seem to be held at regular intervals.
ASI Survey of Gyanvapi Masjid
The municipal government has been ordered by the court to set up prayers in the cellar within a week. A day after an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report on the mosque complex was made public, judge A.K. Vishvesha issued his decision.
According to the ASI survey, which the same court ordered in relation to a related case, the mosque was built on the ruins of a Hindu temple during Aurangzeb’s reign.
The Varanasi court had already ordered on January 17 that the district magistrate assume responsibility for the cellar. However, at that time, it had not provided guidance regarding the right to pray there.
