Gyanvapi - Kashi Vishwanath dispute: LIVE UPDATES from Varanasi District Court

A Varanasi Court will today continue hearing a civil suit filed by Hindu devotees staking claim on the Gyanvapi mosque and the right to worship inside the premises in the ground that the same was a Hindu temple and still houses Hindu deities.

District and Sessions Judge of Varanasi, Dr AK Vishvesha is expected to decide 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.

Yesterday, the Hindu parties had 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 plaint has been filed through 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.

Live updates from the hearing below.