JOIN USVaranasi court reserves order on Gyanvapi Mosque till May 24
The Varanasi district court, hearing a bunch of petitions regarding the Gyanvapi Mosque, is likely to pronounce its verdict on the maintainability of the petitions by the Hindu petitioners claiming that the entire premises belonged to the Kashi Vishwanath and that the Gyanvapi Mosque was only a part of the Temple on Tuesday.
District judge Ajai Krishna Vishwesh reserved his verdict after hearing the counsels of the Hindu and Muslim petitioners in a packed courtroom on Monday.
The lawyers representing the Hindu petitioners 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. They also pleaded that 'Namaz' was being offered at the mosque for the past several decades.
The lawyers for the Hindu petitioners however contended that the mosque bore characteristics of a temple.
The 'Mahant' (chief priest) of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Kulpati Tewari on Monday moved the court seeking permission to worship what he claimed was the 'shivling' which was found during the survey.
A district court had earlier ordered 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 renewed clamor 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.