The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi Masjid, has urged the court to let the report emain 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.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Monday submitted its report on a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid. The report, submitted before the court of the Varanasi district judge in a sealed cover, has the potential to open a new chapter in the decades-old religious dispute, test the country’s legal system, and trigger a new political narrative just months away from the general elections.
The report was filed before Judge Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha, according to the Union government’s standing counsel Amit Srivastava, who appeared for ASI. Separately, the ASI team also submitted a list of objects found during the survey.
The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi Masjid, also filed an application urging the court that the report should 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, media reports reaching here said on Tuesday.
Akhlaque Ahmad, who appeared for the masjid committee, said the court had agreed to hear the matter on December 21.
Vishnu Shankar Jain, counsel for the four Hindu women in the, 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 was quoted as saying by The Hindustan Times.
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.
In July this year, hearing a petition by four Hindu women, the Varanasi district court directed the ASI to conduct a comprehensive survey. On July 24, the mosque committee moved the Supreme Court, arguing that it was not given adequate time to challenge the order. The apex court then stayed till 5 p.m. 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 Masjid’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.
The masjid management committee, in its reply, refuted that the mosque was built over a temple, maintaining the structure at the spot was always a mosque. The 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 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.
In another development, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday allowed a similar survey of the Shahi Eidgah mosque abutting the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura.
In both Varanasi and Mathura, Hindu groups argue that temples were demolished by Muslim 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.
