Gyanvapi title dispute: Allahabad High Court Chief Justice justifies withdrawing case from single judge

The Allahabad High Court Chief Justice recently passed an order detailing the reasons why cases related to the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi land title dispute were withdrawn from a single-judge who had been hearing the matter since 2021[Anjuman Intazamia Masazid Varanasi v Ist ADJ Varanasi & Ors]..In an August 28 order, Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker said that, the decision was taken on the administrative side in the interest of judicial propriety, judicial discipline, transparency in the listing of cases.The Chief Justice has found that the single-judge in question, Justice Prakash Padia, had continued hearing the cases for over two years even though he no longer had jurisdiction in the matter as per the roster.."The non-observance of procedure in listing of the cases, passing of successive orders for reserving the judgment and again listing the cases before the learned Judge for hearing, though he no longer had jurisdiction in the matter as per the roster, under the directions received from the chamber of learned Judge, without allowing the parent section in the office to have access to the records of these cases are instances of non observance of procedure settled for listing and hearing of cases," Chief Justice Diwaker said..The Chief Justice also informed that it was a July 27 complaint filed by one of the parties to the dispute that led him to take note of such impropriety. "Jurisdictional impropriety, noticed above, would have gone undetected, but for a complaint made on the administrative side before the Chief Justice, on 27.7.2023," the August 28 order stated. .The case involves questions over the maintainability of the suit filed by Hindu parties who have staked a claim over the Gyanvapi compound over which the Gyanvapi mosque is presently located. .In the August 28 order, the Chief Justice also intimated that the matter would be fixed for fresh hearings from September 12 onwards (today). The mosque management committee connected with the Muslim mosque on the Gyanvapi compound, namely the Anjuman Intazamia Masazid, Varanasi, had raised concerns about this move. The committee pointed out that Justice Padia had already heard the matter on at least 75 occasions before fixing the matter for pronouncement of judgment on August 28. While so, the cases were administratively withdrawn from Justice Padia's bench by the Chief Justice for a fresh hearing..The Anjuman Intazamia Masazid claimed that this administrative decision was inappropriate and should be reversed. .The Chief Justice, however, declined to backtrack the move in view of the judicial impropriety noticed in how the matter was relisted and reserved for judgment several times by Justice Padia's bench, even though his roster jurisdiction no longer permitted him to do so. "It is apt to note that procedural observance in the matter of disposal of cases subserve a larger public interest of ensuring faith in the justice dispensation system and cannot be viewed lightly," the Chief Justice added. .The Chief Justice, however, decided to keep the objections raised by the petitioners (the committee) as a part of the official record and listed the matter for hearing on September 12 (today)..Senior Advocate SFA Naqvi along with advocates Puneet Kumar Gupta and Syed Ahmed Faizan represented the petitioner (the mosque management committee).Advocates Ajay Kumar Singh, Vijai Shankar Rastogi, MC Chaturvedi, Kunal Ravi Singh, Vijay Shanker Mishra, Hare Ram Tripathi, Ankit Gaur, Vineet Sankalp, Shashi Prakash Singh, Manoj Kumar Singh, Ved Mani Tiwari and Sudarshan Singh represented the respondents (Hindu parties)..[Read Order]