English
Gyanvapi Mosque: The Varanasi Court on Wednesday allows the Hindu petitioners in the Gyanvapi Mosque dispute to offer prayers at Gyanvapi mosque basement. Hindu pujas to begin in 7 days from now at 10 sealed cellars under the Mosque. The district administration has been directed to make the arrangements. “Puja will start within seven days. Everyone will have the right to perform Puja,” Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer representing the Hindu side, said.
Earlier, the Court on Wednesday had issued a notice to the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi mosque, on a plea challenging a Varanasi court’s refusal to direct the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a survey of the ‘wazu khana’ area in the mosque complex.
The order was passed by Justice Rohit Ranjan Agrawal on a revision petition filed by Rakhi Singh, who is one of the plaintiffs in the Shringar Gauri worshipping suit, which is presently pending before the Varanasi district court.
Talking to news agency ANI, Advocate Anupam Dwivedi, representing the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi mosque case, said, “We have moved before the HC on behalf of Rakhi Singh…We moved against the order, given by the District judge. The District judge cancelled our application for the ASI survey of the ‘wazukhana’…HC has admitted our writ & issued notice to all the parties concerned for the hearing…”
Hindu women plaintiffs have moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Archeological Survey of India to determine the nature and associated features of a ‘Shivling’, claimed to have been found at Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque, in the sealed area.
In a separate application, the four Hindu women, who are the original plaintiffs in the suit pending before the Varanasi court, also sought vacation of the top court’s May 19, 2023, order by which it had deferred the scientific survey, including carbon dating, to determine the age of the ‘Shivling’ as directed by the Allahabad High Court on May 12, 2023.
The plaintiffs submitted that the exact nature of the ‘Shivling’ can be determined after removing the artificial/modern walls/floors surrounding it and by undertaking a survey of the entire sealed area by excavation and using other scientific methods.
The application filed through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain said the direction be issued to the ASI to submit a report within the time provided by the court.
“It is submitted that for a proper and effective investigation, it is necessary that the ASI may be directed to undertake necessary excavation and use other scientific methods around the Shivlingam (being claimed by Muslims as a fountain) for determining the nature of Shivlingam and associated features without causing any damage to the object after removing artificial/modern walls/floors surrounding the Shivlingam,” it said.
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