ASI’s Gyanvapi report filed in a sealed cover

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Monday filed before the court of the Varanasi district judge a report on the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque that is set to open the next chapter in a decades-old religious dispute, test India’s legal system, and trigger a new political narrative.

The report, in a sealed packet, was filed before district judge Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha, according to the Union government’s standing counsel Amit Srivastava, who appeared for ASI. In another sealed packet, the ASI team submitted a list of objects found during the survey.

The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi mosque, on Monday filed an application in urging the court that the report should be remain sealed, and not be given to any of the parties unless a personal undertaking on an affidavit is submitted that it will not be leaked.

Akhlaque Ahmad, who appeared for the mosque committee, said the court had agreed to next hear the matter on December 21.

Meanwhile, Vishnu Shankar Jain, the counsel for the four Hindu women in the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case, on Monday filed an application on their behalf, seeking a copy of the survey report.

“By filing an application, we have prayed to the court to provide a copy of the survey report to us,” Jain said, “The court has fixed December 21 as the date of hearing,” he adding, indicating that Thursday will be a crucial and critical day in what happens next in the saga.

The district court is hearing a raft of petitions by Hindu groups and individuals who have demanded worshipping rights inside the mosque premises, claiming the presence of Hindu idols and deities within the complex that abuts the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

This is the second such controversial exercise to be carried out at the premises. Last year, on the final day of a similar survey ordered by a local court, Hindu groups claimed the discovery of a shivling, a structure the Muslim side said was part of a ritual ablution fountain. The area remains sealed under the orders of the apex court.

The Gyanvapi dispute dates back decades, but on July 21 this year, while hearing a petition by four Hindu women, the Varanasi district court directed ASI to conduct a comprehensive survey. On July 24, the mosque committee rushed to the top court against the order, arguing that it was not given adequate time to challenge the order. The apex court then stayed till 5pm on July 26 the Varanasi district court’s order, observing that some “breathing time” must be granted to the petitioners to move the high court.

The Gyanvapi mosque’s scientific survey resumed amid tight security on August 4 after the Allahabad high court on August 3 vacated a stay and gave the go-ahead for the exercise.

On December 11, the court accepted ASI’s plea and granted it one more week’s time to file the report.

The Varanasi court’s verdict ordering the survey came on two applications moved by four of the five Hindu plaintiffs who filed a suit in August 2021, demanding the right of unhindered worship at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal, located inside the complex that houses idols of Hindu gods. Their pleas were argued by advocates Hari Shankar Jain, Vishnu Jain, Sudhir Tripathi and Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi.

The mosque management committee, in its reply, refuted that the mosque was built over a temple, maintaining the structure at the spot was always a mosque. Represented through advocates Ansari and Ekhlaq Ahmad, the management committee opposed the survey, saying such an exercise cannot be ordered to collect evidence. It was also argued that a survey by an advocate commissioner was previously conducted in April 2022 and until the validity of that survey is not decided, no new survey can be ordered.

But the district judge shot down the mosque management committee’s objections, noting the spot inspection conducted in April 2022 is entirely different from a scientific survey by ASI, which has all the modern techniques and wherewithal to ascertain the age and nature of construction at the disputed site.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad high court on Thursday allowed a similar survey of the Shahi Eidgah mosque abutting the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura. The high court was on Monday due to discuss the modalities of the survey, but put the hearing off on a request from the Muslim side.

In both Varanasi and Mathura, Hindu groups argue that temples were demolished by Islamic rulers to build mosques, and therefore, the land should be returned to Hindus.

Muslim groups reject the contention, saying that the 1991 Places of Worship Act – which locks the religious character of holy sites as they existed on the day of independence, with the exception of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site – bars any such petitions. Some of these pleas are also pending before the Supreme Court.

“The matter is under legal scrutiny and we are confident that eternal truth will prevail,” UP BJP spokesperson Harish Srivastava said.