SC discover to Gyanvapi mosque committee on plea for ASI survey of ‘shivling’ space

New Delhi: The Supreme Courtroom on Friday sought the response from the Gyanvapi mosque committee in Varanasi on a plea filed by the Hindu facet for conducting an ASI survey of the sealed space of the mosque the place a “shivling” was purportedly present in Might, 2022. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan issued discover to the Committee of Administration Anjuman Intezamia Masajid and sought its reply inside two weeks on a plea filed by the Hindu facet.

On Might 16, 2022, throughout a court-ordered survey of the Gyanvapi premises adjoining to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, a construction discovered within the wazukhana (ablution pond) space was claimed to be a “shivling” by the Hindu facet whereas the Muslim occasion claimed it to be a “fountain”.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, together with advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu facet, stated that they had filed an software to consolidate all of the fits and switch it from the Varanasi district court docket to the Allahabad Excessive Courtroom.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, showing for the mosque administration committee, contended earlier than the bench the enchantment filed by the Masjid committee questioning the maintainability of the fits as barred by the Locations of Worship (Particular Provisions) Act 1991 must be heard on an pressing foundation.

After listening to each the perimeters, the bench agreed to submit all of the issues collectively on December 17.

The highest court docket on August 4, 2023, refused to remain the Allahabad Excessive Courtroom order permitting the ASI to conduct a scientific survey on the Gyanvapi mosque advanced to find out if the seventeenth century construction was constructed upon a pre-existing temple, however the assertion by the Muslim facet that the train will “reopen wounds of the previous”. The apex court docket, nevertheless, requested the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to not take recourse to any invasive act in the course of the survey. It then stated the evidentiary worth of the scientific survey of the ASI was open to be examined within the lawsuit and was open to objections, together with cross-examination.

The Varanasi district court docket on July 21, 2023 directed the ASI to conduct a “detailed scientific survey” — together with excavations, wherever mandatory — to find out if the Gyanvapi mosque situated subsequent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple was constructed upon a temple.

The mosque’s wazukhana, the place a construction claimed by the Hindu occasion to be a “shivling” exists, is not going to be a part of the survey following an earlier Supreme Courtroom order defending the spot within the advanced.

The Hindu occasion claims a temple existed on the web site which was demolished within the seventeenth century on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.