Allahabad High Court dismisses plea against allowing 'puja' in Gyanvapi cellar

The Allahabad High Court on Monday has concluded that the Vyas family possessed the cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque since the British era till 1993 and prima facie found that the UP government's move restraining the family and devotees from performing Hindu religious rituals there was a "continuous wrong being perpetuated".

The HC dismissed the Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee's appeals challenging the Varanasi district court's orders to both appoint the DM as the receiver of the cellar (passed on January 17), as well as the January 31 order of directing him to facilitate worship and rituals inside the cellar which started on February 1 and refused to interfere in the ongoing worship. The mosque committee will now challenge the order in the Supreme Court.

"Prima facie, I find that act of the state government since 1993 restraining the Vyas family from performing religious worship and rituals and also by the devotees was a continuous wrong being perpetuated," Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said in the order. "The worship and rituals which continued to be performed in the cellar by Vyas family till 1993 was stopped by illegal action of the state without there being any order in writing...Appellant could not establish prima facie possession over the property when the area was iron-fenced and barricaded in 1993," he said.


"Article 25 of the Constitution of India grants freedom of religion. The Vyas family who continued performance of religious worship and rituals in the cellar could not be denied access by oral order. A citizen's right guaranteed under Article 25 cannot be taken away by arbitrary action of the state," he said.