The SC stopped the Gyanvapi mosque survey on July 24 and asked the Muslim side to go to the HC. The suit first arose out of a petition by a group of Hindu women seeking the right to worship Maa Shringar Gauri on the outer wall of the mosque complex. What is the main question of law here?
The Allahabad High Court on Thursday (August 3) dismissed the Gyanvapi mosque committee’s challenge to the order of a Varanasi district court asking for a “scientific investigation/ survey/ excavation” of the premises, saying “scientific survey is necessary for the interest of justice”.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) can now go ahead with the survey that it had started on July 24 but had to abort after the Supreme Court stepped in.
The Gyanvapi mosque stands adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. According to the available historical record, it was built in the 17th century on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after destroying the original Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The present temple was subsequently built next to the mosque by the orders of Queen Ahilya Bai Holkar in the late 18th century.
The decades-old litigation around the mosque has gained momentum over the last year or so after five Hindu women sought the right to worship Maa Shrinagar Gauri on the outer wall of the mosque complex.
The matter has since moved from a magistrate’s court to a district court, to the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court, and then back to the district court and the High Court.
So what was the Varanasi court’s order?
On July 21 this year, a Varanasi district court asked for a “scientific investigation/ survey/ excavation” of the mosque premises by the ASI. District and Sessions Judge Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha asked the ASI to conduct a “ground penetrating radar survey just below the three domes of the building in question and conduct excavation if required”.
The court directed the ASI Director to “find out…whether the [present structure] has been constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”, and to “prepare a list of all the artifacts which are found in the building specifying their contents and carry out a scientific investigation and undertake dating exercises to find out the age and nature of construction”.
How did the district court take up this matter?
The July 21 order of the Varanasi district court came in the civil suit filed by the Hindu women seeking the right to worship Maa Shringar Gauri.
The court clarified that the survey would exclude the wuzu khana, or ablution area, which was sealed last year on the orders of the Supreme Court after Hindu litigants claimed that they had identified a Shivling there. However, the Muslim defendants in the litigation contended that the object that had been found was a fountain.
The district court directed that the survey proceedings be videographed and the report be submitted before August 4, 2023. The court had agreed to hear the present plea for an ASI survey on May 16 this year, after an order by the Allahabad High Court.
And what had the High Court ordered?
On May 16, 2023, the Allahabad High Court ordered a “scientific survey”, including carbon dating, of the “Shivling” that was claimed to have been found during an earlier video graphics survey last year.
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