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Advocate commissioner to survey Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal at Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi complex on May 6
The court of the civil judge (senior division) of Varanasi, Ravi Kumar Diwakar, had on April 26 ordered videography of the Shringar Gauri Sthal in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi complex by the advocate commissioner
Advocate commissioner Ajai Kumar will conduct a survey and inspection of the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal at the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi on May 6 afternoon, said Madan Mohan Yadav, an advocate.
Yadav is the advocate of the petitioners, including Rakhi Singh and four others, who filed a petition in August 2021 seeking daily darshan and poojan (worship) at Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal.
He said the survey would start at 3pm.
A local court had on April 8, 2022, appointed Ajai Kumar as the advocate commissioner in the case.
The case is titled Rakhi Singh and others versus UP state and Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee.
Madan Mohan Yadav said the court of the civil judge (senior division) of Varanasi, Ravi Kumar Diwakar, had on April 26 ordered videography of the Shringar Gauri Sthal in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi complex by the advocate commissioner after Eid. The court had also asked the advocate commissioner to present a report before it at the next hearing on May 10.
The petitioners’ advocate and his assistant, and advocates of the two parties in the case would remain present during the inspection, Yadav had said earlier.
He had said the court had directed the advocate commissioner to inspect the area in the presence of all the parties.
Police force should be made available during the survey, if required, the court had said.
SANT SAMITI LEADER DEMANDS TIGHT SECURITY
Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti general secretary Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati on Wednesday demanded tight security arrangements to ensure that there is no interruption in the survey of Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal on May 6.
He also sought action against SM Yasin, the joint secretary of Intezamia Masajid Committee which manages the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, for his allegedly “provocative” statement in the matter.
On April 30, Yasin had said the committee would peacefully oppose the order of the local court to conduct an inspection, videography and survey. “We will not allow anyone to enter the mosque for videography and survey. The managing committee of the Gyanvapi mosque will oppose this decision of the court,” Yasin had said.
“This decision will be opposed constitutionally,” he had added.
Addressing a press conference in Varanasi, Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati claimed that it would not be first time the complex would be surveyed. In 1937, the then civil judge of Banaras SB Singh had inspected the mosque complex and its surroundings not once but twice, he said. The first inspection was done before the hearing of the concerned case and the second before the judgment was pronounced. In the same case, the British government produced two experts, historian Paramatma Saran and historian A.S. Altekar, as witnesses in the court. Both of them also surveyed and studied in detail the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
Saraswati said that this matter cannot be settled without the survey of the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal.
