Gyanvapi suit: Varanasi court to first hear Mosque Committee on May 26

The Varanasi district court, hearing a bunch of petitions regarding the Gyanvapi Mosque, on Tuesday, ruled that it would first hear the lawyers for the Mosque Committee on the issue of admissibility of the applications by the Hindu petitioners and also the legality of the recently undertaken videography survey inside the Mosque.

The lawyers for the Mosque Committee have sought dismissal of the civil suit filed by the Hindu petitioners seeking removal of the Mosque claiming it was part of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and also right to worship what they claimed was the 'shivling' inside the Mosque on the ground that it was a violation of the Places of Worship Act 1991.

District judge Ajai Krishna Vishwesh, who had reserved his verdict after hearing the counsels of the Hindu and Muslim petitioners on Monday, also directed the rival parties to file their objections on the survey reports submitted to the court by the advocate commissioner within a week.

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The court said that it would also pronounce its ruling on Thursday on which of the petitions filed by different petitioners would be heard.

The lawyers representing the Hindu petitioners had on Monday pleaded that the report of the recent videography survey inside the Mosque should be examined before proceeding further in the matter. The lawyers for the Anjuman Intezamia however contended that the petitions by the Hindus were not maintainable in view of the Places of Worship Act 1991 and hence they should be rejected at the admission stage.

A district court had earlier ordered to seal the place inside the Gyanvapi Mosque after Hindu lawyers claimed that a 'shivling' was found in a pond whose water was used for 'wuzu' (cleansing of body parts before prayers) by the Muslims. The lawyers representing the Muslims, however, refuted the claim and said that what was being called a 'shivalinga' was in fact a 'fountain'.

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The supreme court had a few days back referred the matter back to the district court saying that a senior judge should hear the matter. It also allowed the Muslims to offer prayers inside the Mosque.

The premises had been a bone of contention between the two communities for the past several decades but there was a renewed clamour to ''take back'' the Kashi Vishwanath Temple premises by the saffron outfits after the favourable decision of the apex court in the Ram Temple case.