Varanasi Court to Deliver Verdict on Gyanvapi Mosque Survey Today

A local court in Varanasi on Thursday, 12 May will deliver its verdict regarding the video inspection at the Gyanvapi mosque complex located near the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

(Photo: The Quint)

A local court in Varanasi on Thursday, 12 May, will deliver its verdict regarding the inspection of the Gyanvapi mosque complex located near the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

It will decide if videography could be allowed inside the mosque and if Ajay Kumar Mishra, the commissioner overseeing the survey, needs to be removed.

The court had, in April this year, ordered a video inspection of the site after five women affiliated with the right-wing group Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh filed petitions saying they were entitled to have daily darshan, pooja and perform rituals at the site of Maa Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesh, Lord Hanuman, and other “visible and invisible deities within old temple complex”.

The survey had started last Friday but wasn't fully completed owing to a dispute over videography inside the mosque.

The caretaker committee of the mosque and its lawyers have said that they are against any videography inside the mosque. However, the lawyers for the petitioners say they have the court's go-ahead.

Background

According to the plaintiffs, there existed an image of the goddess Shringar Gauri at the back of the western wall of the mosque. The plaintiffs, according to The Hindu report, also demanded that caretakers of the mosque be restricted from creating obstacles or interfering in the performance of daily pooja, aarti and rituals by devotees.

Authorities were earlier directed by the Varanasi court to submit a report regarding the matter on 10 May.

Speaking to NDTV, Subhash Ranjan Chaturvedi, a lawyer representing the women plaintiffs, said, "How can you decide anything without a proper survey?"

Answering a question on whether the survey would be a violation of the Places of Worship Act, Chaturvedi said, "The places of worship act does not apply there. You are saying it's a mosque. We can say it's a temple. Let it be decided it is a mosque. Then the act will apply."

(With inputs from PTI, The Hindu, NDTV)