Plea seeking survey of closed Gyanvapi cellars: Court grants time to AIMC to file objection, next hearing on Feb 28
On Feb 5, Singh filed a plea in district court, seeking a direction to ASI to undertake the scientific survey of the blocked cellars, which have not been surveyed yet on Gyanvapi premises, using GPR and other methods without causing damage to the existing structure
VARANASI A court in Varanasi on Thursday granted time to Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee (AIMC), which looks after the Gyanvapi mosque, till February 28 to file its objection against a plea seeking an order to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for conducting survey of the closed cellars in the mosque complex by using ground penetrating radar (GPR) and other modern techniques. The court fixed February 28 as the next date of hearing on the plea.
Rakhi Singh, the main plaintiff in the ‘Rakhi Singh and Others Vs State of UP and others’ suit, filed the plea through counsel Saurabh Tiwari, Manbahadur Singh and advocate Anupam Dwivedi.
The hearing took place in the court of additional district judge Anil Kumar. Advocate Saurabh Tiwari, representing the main plaintiff, said, “The counsel representing the AIMC sought time for filing objection against our plea. The court granted them time till February 28.”
Advocate Akhlaque Ahmad, representing the AIMC, said: “We opposed the plea and prayed to the court to grant time to us for filing an objection against it. The court granted us time and fixed February 28 as the next date for hearing.”
On February 5, Singh filed a plea in the district court, Varanasi, seeking a direction to the ASI to undertake the scientific investigation/survey of the blocked cellars, which have not been surveyed yet on Gyanvapi premises, using GPR and other methods without causing damage to the existing structure.
Tiwari said among the cellars of the Gyanvapi premises, at least two were not surveyed during the survey conducted by ASI in the mosque premises last year as their entrances were blocked. The application is for survey in these two cellars.
The ASI conducted the survey in the Gyanvapi mosque complex for about 84 days, initially for a few hours on July 24 and then from August 4 to the first week of November 2023 regularly on a court order. The agency submitted its report in the court of district judge on December 18.
On January 24, Varanasi district court ordered to provide a copy of the ASI’s report on scientific survey of Gyanvapi mosque to the parities to the suit. Both Hindu and Muslim sides got a copy of the survey report on January 25.
Thereafter, quoting the ASI survey report, Vishnu Shankar Jain, a lawyer for the Hindu side, claimed it said a Hindu temple existed prior to the onstruction of the present structure (Gyanvapi mosque).
Plea seeking postponement of execution of court order
A court in Varanasi on Thursday fixed February 28 as the next date for hearing on Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee’s (AIMC) application seeking postponement of execution of district court’s January 31 order at least for 15 days.
On January 31, the Varanasi district court allowed puja in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque. District magistrate S Rajalingam ensured compliance of the order during the wee hours of February 1.
AIMC counsel Akhlaque Ahmad said the court of additional district judge Anil Kumar fixed February 28 as the next date in the matter.
On a plea by Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas, the district court on January 31, had allowed puja in the cellar. Thereafter, the compliance of the district court’s order was ensured during wee hours of February 1.
The court directed the receiver to get the puja done by the plaintiff Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas, who sought permission for it, and a priest nominated by Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust Board.
In his application, Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas claimed that his maternal grandfather used to perform prayers there till December 1993.
