SC asks Gyanvapi mosque committee to approach Allahabad HC against Jan 31 order allowing puja

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has declined to consider a plea against the Varanasi district judge's order permitting Hindu devotees to worship inside the sealed basement of the Gyanvapi mosque and the overnight execution of the order.

The top court asked the committee’s counsel to move the matter before the Allahabad High Court.

Following the district court's order on January 31, the Committee of Management, Anjuman Intezamia Masajid, Varanasi filed an urgent application seeking status quo at the mosque site.

The lawyers of the mosque committee approached the Supreme Court's registrar, seeking an urgent hearing.

The counsel for the mosque committee had apprehended that the puja may be performed inside the mosque.

It is learnt that the registrar told the counsel that he would take instructions from the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud in the matter.

The official informed the mosque committee's counsel that the CJI has asked them to approach the Allahabad High Court. The mosque committee, in the application, contended that the administration was acting in 'hot haste' soon after the Varanasi court's order to perform the puja.

The district court allowed worshipping in the mosque’s basement, also known as ‘Vyasji ka Tehkhana’, and directed the district magistrate of Varanasi to make necessary arrangements in this regard within a week’s time.

The Hindu side had contended that worshipping was carried on in the basement by one Somenath Vyas and his family until November 1993 and that the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government in the state had banned worshipping there after.

On January 25, a survey report of Archaeological Survey of India was made public stating that there existed a Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing mosque.