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

A Varanasi Court is slated to hear 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.

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.

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.

District and Sessions Judge of Varanasi, Dr AK Vishvesha will hear the case.

The civil suit was transferred from the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) to Varanasi District Judge on orders passed on Friday last week by a Supreme Court bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and PS Narasimha.

Live updates from the hearing below.