HC begins hearing petition from mosque committee regarding Gyanvapi complex’s ASI study

The appeal against a district court judgement ordering the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a survey to ascertain if the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi was built upon a temple was being heard by the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday. Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker had scheduled a second hearing in the case for Wednesday after hearing arguments on Tuesday.

Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, which oversees the mosque, filed a high court petition on Tuesday, one day after the Supreme Court ordered a delay in the ASI survey until Wednesday at 5 o’clock, giving the mosque management committee time to file an appeal against the lower court’s decision.

The highest court’s order is set to expire on Wednesday, therefore the committee’s attorney, senior lawyer SFA Naqvi, pleaded for an urgent hearing of the issue before Chief Justice Diwaker. If there are no objections from the parties, the Chief Justice stated he will hear the case.

The respondent’s (Hindu side) lawyer, Vishnu Shankar Jain, claimed that the high court and the Supreme Court both acknowledged an ASI survey that was done in the Ram Mandir case. at order to ascertain whether a temple once stood there, Hindu litigants at the district court requested the survey.

The mosque is situated near to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. The Varanasi District Court ordered the ASI to perform a survey on Friday utilising, if necessary, excavations and technologies like ground penetrating radar. While the ASI team was inside the mosque finishing up the survey on Monday, the apex court issued an injunction pausing it.