Gyanvapi case: Allahabad High Court rejects Muslim sides' plea

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by the committee managing the Gyanvapi mosque, challenging the maintainability of the suit seeking right to worship before Hindu idols found inside the mosque premises. The order thus paved the way for the suit - which led to inspection and videography of the mosque and claims of discovery of a shivling - to be heard in the lower court.

In September last year, the Varanasi district court had dismissed the Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee's plea challenging the maintainability of the suit. The court had said that the plea seeking worshipping rights was not barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 and was also not barred by the Waqf Act of 1995 and UP Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act of 1983.

It had also upheld the contention of the Hindu petitioners that they had been worshipping Maa Shringar Gauri, Lord Hanuman and Lord Ganesh at the disputed site continuously until 1993 when the district administration restricted their entry to a day during Navratra. The mosque committee had then moved the high court challenging this order.


Earlier this month, the high court had also allowed for a scientific investigation of the shivling-like structure found in the mosque premises to be carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India to help decipher the age and nature of the contested structure. That order, however, has been stayed by the Supreme Court until the next date of hearing in July, with chief justice DY Chandrachud observing that "one had to tread carefully in these matters".