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Gyanvapi case: Muslim litigants say they will file appeal, Hindu side hails outcome
The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC) said a committee of lawyers will study the district court’s judgment and accordingly challenge it in the high court.
Muslim petitioners involved in the Gyanvapi mosque case said on Monday that they will consider approaching the Allahabad high court with their request to throw out a plea by a group of Hindu women to pray at a site at the mosque complex, hours after a district court in Varanasi allowed the latter’s plea to proceed in a ruling that the Hindu side saw as a victory.
The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC) said a committee of lawyers will study the district court’s judgment and accordingly challenge it in the high court.
“There is always an option to move the high court. Our team of lawyers will study the judgment first, especially the ground on which our plea was rejected, and then will move the high court,” Mohammed Touhid Khan, one of the counsels of AIMC in the case, said. Khan is also a part of the team that is formed to study the judgment.
Muslim cleric and senior All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali said the community respects the judgment of the district court and “the option to move the high court and the Supreme Court is open”.
“Having complete faith in the Indian judiciary, all the law abiding citizens, including Muslims, believe that the applicability of Places of Worship Act, 1991, will ensure that the character of no other religious place in India will be changed now as this is a part of Ayodhya verdict of five-judge constitutional bench of Supreme Court and it has to be accepted in totality by all Indians,” said Athar Husain, secretary, Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), a trust of the Sunni Central Waqf Board that is taking care of the construction of mosque in Ayodhya’s Dhannipur village.
Varanasi district judge A K Vishvesh agreed to hear the petition filed by five Hindu women who sought permission to worship daily what they claim are idols of Hindu deities located on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque. The court fixed September 22 as the next date of hearing in the case.
A heavy police deployment was in place and the forces carried out flag marches in order to pre-empt any tension ahead of the verdict. Following the ruling, there were celebrations in some pockets with locals playing the dhol (drums), distributing sweets and bursting firecrackers.
The Ganga Seva Samiti (GSS), the body that looks after the famous Ganga Aarti at Assi Ghat, held a special prayer session.
Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Union ministers, also welcomed the order, with the party’s national secretary Y Satya Kumar terming it a “triumph of the truth”. “Kashi and Mathura are identities of our Sanatan culture. We respect the court order and appeal for peace from all sides,” Union minister Giriraj Singh said.
Union minister Anurag Thakur also welcomed the court order. “But everyone needs to be quiet now and let the courts do their work,” he told reporters.
All-India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) president and social activist Shaista Ambar said: “I would like to say that we, as Indians, should not get too caught up and tangled in matters of masjids/mandirs and not let propaganda fuelled by religion sentiments divide us.”
