3 pleas seek ASI survey of entire Gyanvapi mosque

Three applications were filed in the Varanasi district court on Tuesday seeking a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) of the entire Gyanvapi mosque complex, including a disputed structure that Hindu sides call a Shivling but Muslim groups say is part of a fountain.

The three applications were filed by nine applicants and will be heard by district judge Ajay Krishna Vishvesha on May 22. Seven petitions related to the Gyanvapi Masjid matter were transferred to the district court in April. Lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain, who represents the Hindu side, said the district court asked the Gyanvapi mosque management committee to file its reply to the pleas by May 19.

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The first application was filed by four plaintiffs – Rekha Pathak, Lakshami Devi, Sita Sahu and Manju Vyas – who were among the five women whose plea asking for daily worshipping rights inside the mosque complex led to a controversial survey last year of a portion of the mosque complex. The last day of this exercise – which was conducted by three advocate commissioners appointed by the court – unearthed the structure that Hindu groups quickly claimed was a Shivling. The area is currently protected on orders of the Supreme Court.

The second petition was filed by Ram Prasad Singh, Ranjana Agnihotri, Shishir Chaturvedi and Rakesh Kumar Agarwal, devotees of lord Shiva and petitioners who filed a suit last year seeking permission for daily darshan and poojan of purported Shivling, said Jain.

Meanwhile, lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain along with four women plaintiffs and other devotees on Tuesday offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Dham to mark one year of the “discovery of the shivling” in the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

“On May 16 last year, Baba was found in the Gyanvapi mosque complex. We offered prayers and performed Rudrabhishek of Baba Kashi Vishwanath to celebrate his Prakatya Diwas,” said Jain.

Mahant Shiv Prasad Pandey, next friend and devotee of Bhagwan Adi Vishweshwar Virajman, filed the third application, Jain added. Next friend is a legal representative of someone incapable of maintaining a suit directly. “On behalf of the applicants, we have filed three applications in the district court Varanasi, urging that ASI survey of the entire Gyanvapi mosque complex should be done. The court accepted the applications and fixed May 22 as next date of hearing,” Jain said.

“Under the dome of the Gyanvapi complex, there is the remains of the pinnacle of the temple. Also, the western wall of the mosque is the remains of the temple,” he added.

Jain said that entire Gyanvapi complex should be surveyed by ground penetrating radar method, dating and whatever other means were suitable so that its basic condition and reality could be known. Rais Ahmad Ansari, the lawyer for the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee that manages the Gyanvapi mosque, said “We will file an objection in the district court.”

The development came days after the Allahabad high court set aside a Varanasi court order that rejected a demand for carbon dating of the disputed structure, and ordered a scientific survey to determine its age.

The Gyanvapi dispute dates back decades but in August 2021, five women filed a petition in a local court demanding the right of unhindered worship at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal, located inside the complex that houses idols of Hindu gods. In April 2022, the local court ordered a controversial survey of the complex, which quickly ran into protests. The survey was finally completed in May, but not before the Hindu side claimed that a Shivling was found in the final hours of the exercise.

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The petition represents the most successful of a flurry of recent pleas filed by Hindu groups and individuals in courts in Mathura, Agra and Varanasi, demanding worshipping rights in Islamic holy sites.

Last year, Ranjana Agnihotri, Ram Prasad Singh, Rajesh Agrawal, Shishir Chaturvedi asked a Varanasi court, requesting permission to worship the structure.Pandey also filed a similar suit in the civil court last year.