LUCKNOW The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking survey of the recently-found structure in Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque complex, terming it as being filed to gain publicity.
Lawyer Ashok Pandey, who was representing seven petitioners in court, had pleaded for a survey of the structure found in Gyanvapi mosque by a committee headed by a sitting or retired judge of the Supreme Court or the high court to ascertain what it is.
They requested the court to ascertain whether the structure found in Gyanvapi was a ‘Shivling’, as claimed by Hindus or a fountain, as claimed by Muslims.
The court completed hearing in the case on June 10 and reserved the order. The court passed the order on Tuesday.
Vinod Kumar Shahi, additional advocate general, representing the state government, had opposed the petition and pointed out that it had no locus standi on grounds of lack of territorial jurisdiction.
A division bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi observed: “The observations of the Hon’ble Supreme Court squarely apply to the present petition, which has although been styled as a ‘Public Interest Litigation’, but it does not contain any mention of any legally enforceable right of the public at large having been infringed or denied and it appears that the petition has been filed merely in order to gain some publicity.”
{{/usCountry}}A division bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi observed: “The observations of the Hon’ble Supreme Court squarely apply to the present petition, which has although been styled as a ‘Public Interest Litigation’, but it does not contain any mention of any legally enforceable right of the public at large having been infringed or denied and it appears that the petition has been filed merely in order to gain some publicity.”
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