A Varanasi court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by the Gyanvapi Mosque committee challenging the maintainability of the suit by Hindu devotees who sought permission to pray at a shrine on the mosque premises.
District and sessions court judge AK Vishvesha said the plea filed by the five women devotees was not barred by the Places of Worship act, 1991 and directed all parties to file their submissions before September 22 when the matter will be heard next.
Syed Mohammed Yasin, the joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee that manages the Gyanvapi mosque, told BOOM that they would challenge the district court's order before the high court.
This means that the plea filed by the Hindu devotees will now be heard by a competent court. This does not mean that the request to worship at the Ma Shrinagar Gauri shrine has been allowed.
The district court pronounced its order amid tight security across key sites in the city. Section 144 was imposed Sunday onwards to prevent any untoward incidents in light of the verdict.
Five Hindu women—now four—had filed a plea in August 2021 seeking the right to pray at a shrine dedicated to Goddess Maa Shringar Gauri inside the Gyanvapi Mosque or Gyanvapi Mandir as they insist on calling the contested religious structure located inside the Kashi Vishvanath temple corridor.
Since then, at least 12 pleas—with more or less identical prayers—were filed including one by Sudarshan TV's Editor-in-Chief Suresh Chavhanke who is standing in for Maa Ganga (the River Ganga) and serial public interest litigator Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
The district court is also hearing a separate plea where Hindu devotees have sought the destruction of the mosque and claimed the land it rests on.
BOOM recaps the series of events and the arguments that took place since the plea was filed.
Also Read:Hindu Petitioners On What Made Them Believe That 'Gyanvapi Mosque Is A Temple'
Hindu or Muslim?: The battle in court
The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which maintains the Gyanvapi Mosque, had opposed the plea and sought a dismissal of the same insisting that it was a Waqf property and submitted that the Places of Worship Act, 1991 barred such requests.
The Places of Worship Act, 1991 freezes the religious character of a structure as it was on August 15, 1947. The Babri Masjid, now recognized as the birthplace of Lord Ram by a November 2019 Supreme Court verdict, was the sole exception.
However, advocate Vishnu Jain representing the Hindu petitioners argued that the Places of Worship Act did not bar his case. Jain challenged the religious character of the Gyanvapi Mosque and sought to establish that it was a Hindu religious structure as on August 15, 1947 when the Act kicked in.
During the hearing, in April 2022 the district court sealed the mosque premises and directed a video survey of the contested structure, the contents of which were leaked to the media in violation of court orders.
Based on leaks that were aired across news channels, the Hindu devotees claimed the discovery of a "swayambhu shivling" (a shivling that appears on its own) inside the mosque, with the masjid panel insisting that the structure in question was part of the wuzu khana's fountain.
A month later, in May, Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh (VVSS) chief Jitendra Singh Vishen filed a separate plea before a Varanasi civil court seeking the ban on Muslims from entering the Gyanvapi Mosque; a relocation of the mosque to a different site; and interim relief seeking permission to enter a portion of the mosque to pray at the alleged "shivling" that was discovered during the court-ordered survey of the premises.