JOIN USDistrict court to continue hearing Gyanvapi Mosque case on May 30
The Varanasi district court, hearing a bunch of petitions regarding the Gyanvapi Mosque, would continue to hear the arguments from 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 on May 30.
The Mosque Committee lawyers, while advancing their arguments in the matter, pleaded that the petitions from the Hindu petitioners were not maintainable as they were barred by the Places of Worship Act 1991.
They also said in the court that the 'rumours' about the alleged discovery of 'shivling' inside the Gyanvapi Mosque could disturb public peace. As their arguments could not be completed on Thursday the court adjourned the matter till May 30.
Vishnu Jain, the lawyer for one of the Hindu petitioners, said that the Muslim side only ''readout'' the paragraphs from our petitions and argued that the petitions should be rejected at the admission stage. ''We also interjected in the matter and told the court that the Hindus had the right to worship,'' Jain added.
A district court had earlier ordered the sealing of 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'.
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.