The plea seeking worship of the ‘Shivling’ that the Hindu side claimed to be found on the Gyanvapi mosque premises has been postponed by a Varanasi court to November 14.
The plea was scheduled to be heard today, but it is adjourned as the concerned judge would not sit in the court today. The court was expected to rule on the plaintiff’s three primary demands, which were to grant permission for Swayambhu Jyotirlinga Bhagwan Vishweshwar to immediately begin offering prayers, turn over the entire Gyanvapi complex to Hindus, and forbid Muslims from entering the Gyanvapi complex’s grounds.
The Muslim side is allowed to offer prayers at present, as per the reports.The scientific investigation of the purported ‘Shivling’ was refused by the Varanasi court in the previous hearing.
The Hindu side had asked for carbon dating of the object inside the wazukhana of the Gyanvapi Mosque that they believed to be a Shivling.
The discovered building, according to the Muslim side, was a “fountain,” though. On September 22, the Hindu side had filed a request with the Varanasi District Court asking for a carbon dating of the artefact they claimed to be the “Shivling.”
The Hindu side said that they would appeal the Varanasi court’s decision not to permit a “scientific investigation” of the alleged “Shivling,” which they claimed to have discovered on the grounds of the Gyanvapi mosque, to the Supreme Court.
The Varanasi court said, “It would not be proper to order the survey of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and by giving such order the age, nature, and structure of the said Shivling is known, even this does not imply the possibility of a just solution”.
Advocate Vishnu Jain, representing the side in the Gyanvapi case, “Court has rejected our demand of seeking carbon dating. We’ll move to Supreme Court against this order and challenge it there. I cannot announce the date as of now, but we’ll soon challenge this order in Supreme Court.”
“Though the court has rejected the demand of requesting carbon dating, the option of going to the High Court is available, and the Hindu side will make their argument before the High Court as well,” said Madan Mohan Yadav, another attorney for the Hindu side.
The Varanasi Court had stated that “if the claimed Shivling is damaged by taking samples, then it will be in violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court” in reference to the Supreme Court’s ruling from May 17.
The Varanasi Court had stated that “if the Shivling is harmed, the religious feelings of the general people can also get injured.”
The age of an archaeological object or find can be determined scientifically using carbon dating.