District Court admits plea demanding 'Wazukhana' survey

One of the five women Hindu litigants who has been pursuing the Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath dispute in courts, Rakhi Singh, on Tuesday filed a fresh plea in a Varanasi court seeking directions to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific investigation of the Wazukhana inside the mosque, excluding the claimed Shivlinga, found there.

The court of the district judge has admitted the plea and set the date of hearing for September 8.

Last year, the Supreme Court had directed the DM of Varanasi to ensure that the area where the purported Shivlinga had been discovered, which is the wazukhana or the ablution pond of the mosque, to be protected. Accordingly, the ongoing ASI investigation of the mosque has been approved by the courts on condition that the agency will not include in its investigation the protected area adhering to the SC order. The ASI has been conducting the survey on the premises for 26 days.


However, in the fresh petition, Singh argued that the survey of the protected/sealed area, excluding the Shivlingam, is needed to "ascertain the religious character" of the disputed premises as it has been established by the ASI that the survey will not damage the protected portion.

The petition has also relied on a May 12 order of the Allahabad HC that allowed scientific investigation of the Shivlinga-like structure to help decipher its age and nature, convinced by the ASI's report that it will not be damaged in the process. The SC however stayed the order.