The court of the Varanasi district judge on Thursday granted a further four weeks’ time to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to complete the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises and submit its report.
The court gave its order on the ASI’s application that sought a further four weeks beyond the October 6 deadline for the task.
“Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is given four weeks’ time to complete the survey work and submission of report,” read the court order.
“We filed an application on Wednesday and prayed to the court of the district judge, Varanasi, to grant further four weeks’ time after 6 October for performing survey in the Gyanvapi mosque complex and submitting its report before the court,” said Amit Kumar Srivastava, standing government counsel for the Union government, who filed the application on behalf of ASI.
“The court heard the matter on Thursday. Counsel for the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee (AIMC) also presented their submission before the court,” he said.
“After hearing all the sides on the matter, the court of the district judge granted four weeks’ time to complete the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex and submit its report,” said Srivastava.
{{/usCountry}}“After hearing all the sides on the matter, the court of the district judge granted four weeks’ time to complete the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex and submit its report,” said Srivastava.
{{/usCountry}}The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages Gyanvapi mosque, received a copy of the application, its counsel Akhlaque Ahmad confirmed.
On September 8, the court of the Varanasi district judge had granted four weeks’ time to ASI to complete scientific investigation and survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex. The court had ordered the ASI to submit the survey report before it by October 6. The ASI had sought an additional eight weeks.
Earlier, on August 5, the court of the Varanasi district judge granted an additional four weeks to 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 Varanasi court ordered the ASI to submit report up to September 2.
The Varanasi court had initially ordered the survey on July 21 and asked for submission of the report by August 4.
In compliance with that order, the ASI had conducted the survey for over four-and-a-half hours on July 24 after which the Supreme Court the same day (July 24) halted the exercise till 5pm on July 26 and 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.