VARANASI: A quick-track court docket in Varanasi rejected Friday a Hindu plaintiff’s plea for an “extra” survey by ASI of the Gyanvapi mosque complicated, utilizing invasive strategies to achieve entry to purportedly razed stays of an historical Adi Vishweshwar temple believed to exist beneath the central dome.
Civil choose (senior division) Yughul Shambhu cited directives from Supreme Courtroom and Allahabad excessive court docket barring any excavation in the course of the earlier survey by ASI of “Plot No 9130” throughout the Gyanvapi complicated.
“Primarily based on the info and circumstances, it may be concluded that the report submitted by ASI is but to be examined. Secondly, the construction the place a ‘Shivling’ is acknowledged to have been discovered is protected by an order of Supreme Courtroom,” Shambhu mentioned.
The fast-track court docket reserved its order in the course of the earlier listening to on Oct 19 after Anjuman Intizamia Masajid, the mosque’s custodian, filed objections to advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi’s petition looking for one other survey by ASI.
Rastogi, who identifies himself as “subsequent good friend of Swayambhu Jyotirlinga Bhagwan Vishweshwar” within the authentic Dec 2019 plea for a survey to seek out out if the mosque was constructed over a demolished shrine, informed reporters that he would attraction Friday’s ruling within the excessive court docket.
Gyanvapi is embroiled in a number of litigations, together with the Shringar Gauri case filed in Aug 2021 by 5 girls plaintiffs looking for unrestricted entry to the mosque complicated for day by day worship of “seen and invisible” Hindu deities there.
Two earlier surveys of the complicated, one by a group constituted by the civil choose’s court docket and the second by ASI, have yielded purported findings that the Hindu facet insists are proof of the existence of a temple.
The primary court-mandated survey in Might 2022 revealed the “Shivling” in the midst of the wuzukhana, or ablution pond. The then civil choose ordered that the pond space be sealed, whereas permitting namaz to proceed. The identical month, SC ordered established order on the dispute and steps to guard the pond space. The apex court docket additionally transferred the case to the district choose’s court docket.
On July 23 final yr, the district choose requested ASI to conduct a scientific survey of Gyanvapi in response to a plea from the plaintiffs within the Shringar Gauri swimsuit. The survey was to cowl the complete premises, barring the sealed wuzukhana zone, to “decide if the mosque had been constructed over the pre-existing construction of a Hindu temple”.
ASI submitted its report in a sealed envelope on Dec 18 final yr, nevertheless it wasn’t opened till Jan 24. The fast-track court docket, which was individually listening to Rastogi’s plea for a survey of Gyanvapi, directed him to acquire a duplicate of the ASI report earlier than transforming his plea.
In compliance with the Dec 30 order, Rastogi submitted a contemporary plea in Feb with references to the ASI report. He sought excavation of a trench to achieve entry to the purported sanctum sanctorum of the traditional temple that’s presumed to have been demolished to construct the present mosque.
Rastogi contends that the shrine beneath the central dome homes a towering “Shivling” and an artesian properly.
AIM and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board filed their objections towards Rastogi’s plea on varied grounds.
