Convene meeting for Wuzu: Supreme Court to Varanasi district collector

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the district collector of Varanasi to convene a meeting on Tuesday to provide a congenial working arrangement for ‘wuzu’ or ablution ritual inside the Gyanvapi mosque premises during the Muslim holy month of Ramzan. The directions were passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on an application filed by Muslim parties, in cluding the Gyanvapi mosque committee, seeking permission to carry out wuzu in the mosque complex.

The application was filed earlier this month on a clutch of pleas pertaining to the Gyanvapi mosqueKashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Appearing on behalf of the state of Uttar Pradesh, solicitor general Tushar Mehta argued that arrangements already exist for providing water for wuzu. As regards the provision of toilets, Mehta contended that the entry to the complex is from the side that is close to the object found during a survey at the mosque, which one group claims to be a ‘Shivling’ while the other calls it a fountain. Mehta indicated that this could create a problem.

On behalf of the petitioners, senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi submitted that the mosque would be content with even mobile toilets. Last month, a plea was moved before SC seeking to consolidate all suits pertaining to the dispute that are currently pending before a Varanasi court. In the plea, filed by the Hindu side, it was argued that the Varanasi court has deferred five times the decision on a plea seeking clubbing of all civil suits pertaining to the dispute. The counsel for the Hindu parties had argued that the Varanasi court was not passing an order on the issue.


On November 11 last year, SC had extended its May 17 order protecting the object found during the survey at the mosque. In October last year, a Varanasi court had rejected a plea filed by the Hindu parties seeking directions to the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a scientific investigation to ascertain whether the object found during the survey is a Shivling or a fountain.