The ASI has to submit the report back to the district courtroom by August 4.
Lucknow:
A workforce from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has began a “scientific survey” of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque right now even because the mosque administration committee filed a petition within the Supreme Court docket in opposition to the Varanasi district courtroom’s order permitting the inspection.
The survey – which started at 7 am – will lengthen to all areas besides the sealed “wuzukhana” the place a construction that Hindu litigants claimed to be a ‘Shivling’ – a relic of Lord Shiva — was discovered throughout an earlier survey in 2022. The mosque administration committee is boycotting the survey being carried out by the ASI. “Not one of the members of the Muslim aspect will likely be current through the survey,” Syed Mohammad, Joint Secretary of the Masjid Committee, mentioned.
The ASI has to submit the report back to the district courtroom by August 4.
The inspection is being carried out following an order by the Varanasi district courtroom on Friday. The order was handed primarily based on a plea by 4 ladies worshippers who declare the Gyanvapi mosque was constructed after razing an historic Hindu temple and {that a} scientific examine is required to carry out the complete information.
Whereas passing the order, the courtroom held that the scientific investigation is “essential” for the “true information” to return out.
The identical petitioners had filed the 2021 petition within the Gyanvapi matter, asking for year-long entry to the m “Shringar Gauri” shrine contained in the mosque.
Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, who additionally represents Hindu aspect within the Gyanvapi case, claimed the courtroom’s choice is a turning level within the case. “Our utility for the ASI survey has been accepted. It’s a turning level within the case,” he mentioned.
The Supreme Court docket will hear the petition filed by the mosque administration committee in opposition to the Varanasi district courtroom’s order at 10:30 am.
In Might this yr, the Supreme Court docket had deferred the “scientific survey”, together with carbon relationship, of the “Shivling” that was mentioned to have been discovered on the Gyanvapi mosque advanced throughout a videographic survey carried out final yr.
The highest courtroom’s order had come days after Allahabad Excessive Court docket directed the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the construction that Hindu petitioners claimed is a “Shivling”. The Gyanvapi mosque authorities had mentioned the construction is part of a fountain within the “wazukhana”, the place individuals carry out ablutions earlier than providing namaz.
In September final yr, the Varanasi district decide had dismissed a problem by the mosque committee that argued that the case by the ladies has no authorized standing.
Positioned in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, the Gyanvapi mosque is likely one of the a number of mosques the fitting wing believes have been constructed on the ruins of Hindu temples.
It was one of many three temple-mosque rows, moreover Ayodhya and Mathura, which the BJP raised within the Eighties and Nineties.
