New Delhi: A Varanasi court Thursday said the video survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque, next to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, would continue. It ordered the survey to be completed by 17 May.
The court refused to remove the survey commissioner, Advocate Ajay Kumar Mishra, as demanded by the mosque’s management committee, who accused him of “favouring Hindu petitioners in his court-mandated task”.
The court had ordered an inspection of the mosque in April this year on petitions filed by five Hindu women asking for year-long access to pray at a Hindu shrine behind the western wall of the Gyanvapi Mosque complex in Varanasi.
The women sought permission to perform daily worship of deities Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesha, Lord Hanuman and Nandi whose idols are located on the outer wall of the mosque.
They also sought the court’s order to stop anyone from damaging the idols.
The mosque management committee — Anjuman Intezamiya Masajid — contended that the court in April did not give any order for the videography inside the mosque but only till the ‘chabutra’ (courtyard) outside the barricades enclosing the mosque area.
The court-appointed commissioner, as well as lawyers of both sides, went inside the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri temple complex on Saturday.
Despite spending nearly two hours, they could not accomplish the work and had to come out.
The lawyer, representing the women, said men inside the mosque did not allow the survey team to enter the mosque area.
The Intezamia committee moved the civil court Saturday, and sought replacement of the advocate commissioner on grounds that it had “doubts over his fairness”.
The issue dates back several decades, to 1991, when a suit was filed in the courts seeking directions for the “temple land” to be handed over to the Hindu community.
The Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi complex is home to the 18th century Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the 17th century Gyanvapi Mosque.
Also read:Decoding the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi dispute, and why Varanasi court has ordered ASI survey