HC seeks Centre, UP replies on appeals against ASI survey of Gyanvapi mosque
PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court on Wednesday granted three weeks to the central and state governments to file counter-affidavits (replies) in petitions seeking a stay on the April 8 order of a local court in Varanasi that had directed an archaeological survey of the entire complex of Gyanvapi mosque by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Justice Prakash Padia passed the order on two petitions filed by UP Sunni Waqf Board and Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, the management committee of the Gyanvapi Mosque, while fixing September 28 as the next date of hearing in the case.
According to the petitioners, the April 8 order directing the ASI to conduct the survey of the land was passed illegally and without jurisdiction.
The petitioners further said the local court’s ruling came even as the Allahabad high court reserved its judgment on the maintainability of the suit pending in the former.
“The high court had reserved the verdict on the issue of maintainability of the suit. The court below should not have passed any order in the suit till the issue of maintainability of the suit was decided by the high court,” said senior counsel SFA Naqvi.
On April 8, the Varanasi court of the civil judge (senior division) Ashutosh Tiwari ordered a five-member committee comprising two Hindus, two Muslims, and an archaeological expert to oversee the “comprehensive physical survey” of the centuries-old Gyanvapi Mosque complex. The plea in the case contended that the mosque in Varanasi was part of a temple. The suit was filed in 1991 seeking restoration of the ancient temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque currently stands.
On March 15, the Allahabad high court reserved its judgment in various pleas that challenged the maintainability of the 1991 suit before the Varanasi trial court.
In 1991, the government passed a law, Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, that maintained status quo in all places of worship as of 1947, except the disputed site at Ayodhya.
In 2019, the Supreme Court finally ruled in favour of the Hindu parties in the Ayodhya dispute, ordering the creation of a trust to build a temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi site. In 2021, the Supreme Court asked the Union government to respond to a petition that challenges the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act. Analysts saw this as a move that created the possibility of litigation over other disputed religious sites, including the one at Varanasi.