Today, the Allahabad High Court is set to deliver its verdict on a petition challenging the Varanasi district court’s ruling permitting Hindu prayers in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.
On January 31, the Varanasi district court granted permission for a priest to conduct prayers in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque. This decision stemmed from a petition filed by Shailendra Kumar Pathak, whose maternal grandfather, Somnath Vyas, had been offering prayers there until December 1993. Pathak, asserting his hereditary right as a pujari, sought access to the tahkhana to resume the pooja rituals.
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The mosque houses four cellars in its basement, one of which remains in possession of the Vyas family.
The district court’s ruling followed the release of an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report on the mosque complex. The ASI investigation, initiated by the same court in connection with a related case, indicated that the mosque was built during Aurangzeb’s reign atop the remnants of a Hindu temple.
However, the mosque committee contested the petitioner’s claims, stating that no idols were present in the cellar, thereby refuting the notion of prayers being conducted there until 1993.
Following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of its plea against the Varanasi district court’s order and its directive to approach the high court, the mosque committee swiftly approached the Allahabad High Court on February 2. The court subsequently reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from both sides on February 15.
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