Supreme Court to hear Muslim side plea for performing ritual at Gyanvapi
The Supreme Court will on April 14 hear a fresh plea by Gyanvapi mosque management committee seeking appropriate arrangement for wuzu (ablution) during Ramzan prayers near the section in the complex where a Shivling was stated to have been found during a survey last year.
The Supreme Court will on April 14 hear a fresh plea by Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque management committee seeking appropriate arrangement for wuzu (ablution) during Ramzan prayers near the section in the complex where a Shivling was stated to have been found during a survey last year.
Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said that a special bench, comprising himself and justices Surya Kant and PS Narasimha, will consider the request.
Senior counsel Huzefa Ahmadi, representing the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee that manages the Gyanvapi mosque, cited heavy rush during Ramzan as he requested for further arrangements for performing wuzu. Ahmadi, assisted by advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, pointed out that the previous court orders have already asked the district administration to ensure proper arrangements for wuzu and he was only seeking suitable implementation of these directives in view of Ramzan.
The top court is currently seized of a petition filed by the mosque committee in May, opposing the suit of five Hindu women who demanded an unhindered right to worship Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal, a shrine for goddess Parvati allegedly located behind the western wall of the mosque complex.
The committee claims the suit is barred by the provisions of the 1991 Act, which locks the position or “religious identity” of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. The committee had appealed against the April 2022 order of the Allahabad high court allowing the survey.
By an order in May 2022, the top court protected the area where the Shivling was said to have been found after a Varanasi civil court allowed a videographic survey of the mosque complex adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The Hindu petitioners claimed the Shivling was found close to the wuzukhana, a small reservoir used by Muslim worshippers to perform ritual ablutions before offering namaz.
At the same time, the top court in last May allowed offering of namaz inside the mosque complex and directed the local administration to ensure proper arrangements for wuzu.
By its May order, the Supreme Court also transferred the suit filed by the Hindu women from the Varanasi civil judge to the district judge for deciding the mosque committee’s objections against the inquiry. It asked the district judge to first decide on the maintainability of the suit. Ascertainment of the religious character of a place may not be barred by the Places of Worship Act, 1991, the court observed on that day, as it refrained from interfering with the Gyanvapi mosque survey.
The Varanasi district judge rejected the mosque committee’s objections to maintainability on September 12, 2022, and decided to proceed with the suit. The committee has challenged this order before the Allahabad high court, which is yet to rule on the appeal.
