The petitioners are seeking a year-long prayer in a Hindu temple behind the Gyanvapi Masjid
Varanasi:
A Varanasi court will deliver its verdict today in the matter related to the inspection of the Gyanvapi Masjid located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
The court had in April this year ordered the inspection on petitions by five Hindu women seeking permission for a year to pray at a Hindu temple behind the western wall of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi. The site is currently opened for prayer once a year. Women also seek permission to pray to “other visible and invisible deities within the old temple complex”. The local court had earlier directed the officials to submit a report by May 10.
The survey began last Friday but has not been fully completed due to a dispute over videography inside the mosque. The caretaker committee of Gyanvapi Masjid and its lawyers have said that they are opposed to any videography inside the mosque. But the lawyers for the petitioners have claimed that they have got the permission of the court.
The court will also decide today whether to replace the commissioner overseeing the survey and whether videography will be allowed inside the mosque.
Abhay Nath Yadav, counsel for the Gyanvapi Masjid Management Committee, told NDTV, “The role of the commissioner appointed by the court is biased and the court has given no such order to enter the mosque.”
“In an earlier case, a civil judge has declared the mosque as the property of Muslims. No litigant has sought removal of the mosque,” Yadav said.
Advocate Subhash Ranjan Chaturvedi, appearing for the women petitioners, said he is hopeful that the court will order a survey inside the mosque as well.
“How can you decide anything without a proper survey,” Chaturvedi told NDTV.
When asked whether any survey inside a mosque would not be in violation of the Places of Worship Act, which provided for status quo at all places of worship as on August 15, 1947, Mr Chaturvedi said, “The Places of Worship Act does not apply there. Do it. You are saying it is a mosque, we can say it is a temple. Let it decide it is a mosque, then the Act will come into force.”