Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath dispute: Varanasi court to decide tomorrow whether to consider survey report first

A Varanasi court hearing the Gyanvapi Mosque-Kashi Vishwanath Temple dispute will decide tomorrow whether to take the advocate commissioner's survey report of the Mosque into account and invite objections to the same before commencing the hearing of the application of the Muslim party regarding the maintainability of the suit.

District and Sessions Judge Dr AK Vishvesha will pass an order tomorrow on this limited aspect after the Hindu parties today submitted that the objections to survey report by advocate commissioner who had videographed and done a survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque, should be heard first.

The case is a civil suit filed by Hindu devotees seeking the right to worship inside the premises of the Gyanvapi Mosque, on the ground that it was a Hindu temple and still houses Hindu deities.

The Muslim parties have challenged the maintainability of the suit on ground that the Places of Worship Act of 1991, which was introduced at the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, seeks to protect the status of all religious structures as they stood on August 15, 1947.

Section 4 of the Act states that the religious character of a place of worship existing on August 15, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day. It bars courts from entertaining cases regarding such places of worship. The provision further states that such cases already pending in courts would stand abated.

Earlier, a civil court had ordered a survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque by an advocate commissioner. The advocate commissioner had conducted the survey, videographed the same and submitted a report to the civil court.

The suit before the civil court was, however, transferred to the District Judge by the Supreme Court.

The Hindu parties have now contended before the District Court that without taking into account the survey report, the maintainability of the suit cannot be decided, since the nature of the religious structure is the subject matter of the dispute.

The Court is likely to give its verdict on this limited aspect tomorrow.

The plaintiffs before the Court are ten individuals acting as next friends of the deities claimed to be existing within the precincts of the mosque.

They have claimed that a Jyotirlingam in the ancient temple was desecrated in 1669 under the orders of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, but Maa Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesh and other deities continued to exist.

After partial demolition of the ancient temple of Lord Adi Visheshwar, a new construction of the Gyanvapi Mosque was raised, the plaint filed through advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Pankaj Kumar Verma said.

Read live updates from Varanasi District Court here.