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ASI seeks eight more weeks to submit Gyanvapi survey report
On August 5, the court of the Varanasi district judge granted an additional four weeks to the ASI to submit a report on the Gyanvapi mosque’s scientific survey that resumed amid tight security on August 4 after the Allahabad high court on August 3 vacated a stay and gave the go-ahead for the exercise
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Saturday sought eight more weeks to submit its report on the scientific survey being conducted at the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi. The Varanasi district court had asked the ASI to submit the report by September 2.
The ASI has been surveying the barricaded area of the Gyanvapi mosque premises, excluding its sealed section, since August 4.
On behalf of the ASI, standing government counsel Amit Kumar Srivastava filed the application requesting more time from the Varanasi court.
Srivastava said, “We prayed to the court to grant a further eight weeks to the ASI to submit its report on the survey of Gyanvapi mosque because the exercise is still ongoing on.”
“Our application was put up before the court of additional district judge first. The application was listed. The additional district judge first directed to put the matter before the district judge for hearing,” Srivastava said.
He added that the court did not fix any date for a hearing for the matter.
“The survey is still going on. Therefore, the ASI has sought more time for completing the survey and submitting the report,” said Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, counsel for plaintiff numbers two to five in the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi matter.
Objecting to the request, Mumtaz Ahmad, the counsel for the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi mosque, said, “We will file an objection against it.”
In compliance with an order of the court of the Varanasi district judge, the ASI is conducting a scientific investigation/survey at the Gyanvapi mosque.
A team of archaeologists, archaeological chemists, epigraphists, surveyors, and other experts are engaged in investigations and documentation of Gyanvapi, the ASI’s application read.
During the survey, it was found that a lot of trash, debris consisting of garbage, discarded items, loose soil and building materials such as bricks and brickbats, loose stone slabs and fragments, and fallen material are dumped at floor level in cellars as well as around the structure, covering the original features of the structure, the application further reads.
Cleaning of this debris/trash above the working floor is in progress to examine the structures scientifically, the application from the ASI further stated.
As the court has directed to survey the ground of all the cellars, soil/debris accumulated there must be removed without causing any damage to the standing structure, the ASI application said. It said that the removal of debris very carefully and systematically is a slow process and hence more time is needed before the ground of all the cellars is cleared for survey as directed by the court, the application added.
On August 5, the court of the Varanasi district judge granted an additional four weeks to the ASI to submit a report on the Gyanvapi mosque’s scientific survey that resumed amid tight security on August 4 after the Allahabad high court on August 3 vacated a stay and gave the go-ahead for the exercise.
Earlier, when the court ordered the survey on July 21, it had asked for submission of the report by August 4.
In compliance with that order, the ASI had surveyed for over four-and-a-half hours on July 24, after which the Supreme Court halted the exercise the same day (July 24) till 5pm and on July 26, it granted liberty to the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee to approach the Allahabad high court.
When the mosque committee moved the high court on July 25, it extended the stay on the survey. The high court gave its ruling on August 3 and allowed the exercise to go ahead.
AIMC moved the Supreme Court against the high court order but the top court refused to stay the survey on August 4.
