New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the survey of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Mosque till 5 pm on 26 July and asked the mosque committee to appeal a district court’s order for such a survey in the Allahabad High Court.
The Gyanvapi mosque management committee — Anjuman Intezamia Masjid – had mentioned a plea in the apex court against the Varanasi district court’s order on Friday order for an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of the mosque complex, which is adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
A 30-member ASI team entered the Gyanvapi complex on Monday morning to carry out the scientific survey as ordered by the court on the plea of Hindu litigants who claim the mosque was built on a temple.
The Muslim side wanted the survey postponed and had approached the Supreme Court with its plea, which was heard Monday.
On Friday, District Judge A.K. Vishvesh directed the ASI to conduct a detailed scientific survey — including excavations, wherever necessary — to determine if the mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi was built at a place where a temple existed earlier.
The survey was sought by the original litigants, five Hindu women, who earlier sought permission to pray at the “Shringar Gauri Sthal” inside the shrine complex.
During Monday’s hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that not a brick had been removed nor was it planned to be removed. “Right now what is going on is measurement, photography, and radar, which will not affect the structure,” Mehta told the apex court.
The Muslim side questioned the “tearing hurry” behind the survey as “this place has been a mosque since the 1500s”, they argued. “There must be a status quo order,” the mosque committee told the top court, citing its earlier order by which the Supreme Court had stayed the carbon dating of a structure which the Hindu side claims as a Shivling while the Muslim side says is a fountain.
This structure was found in the “wazhukhana” or ablution pond of the mosque during another court-mandated survey in May 2022. Following the Supreme Court’s earlier order, this area is now sealed and would not have been touched by the ASI for the “scientific survey”.
Meanwhile, lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side in the case, said the top court has put a stay on the district court’s order and asked the Allahabad High Court to decide the matter afresh. “We will place our side at the Allahabad HC. The Muslim side, Anjuman Intezamia, misled the SC and said that digging has started in the mosque, which is not true,” Jain added.
Also read: ASI team enters Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi to carry out scientific survey