E-Paper
Gyanvapi survey: ASI gets one more week, asked to file report by December 18
The court directive came after Amit Srivastava, the Centre’s standing government counsel who represents the ASI, filed an application seeking a week’s time.
Accepting the Archaeological Survey of India’s plea, the Varanasi district court on Monday granted one more week’s time to ASI and directed it to file a report on the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque by December 18.
The court directive came after Amit Srivastava, the Centre’s standing government counsel who represents the ASI, filed an application seeking a week’s time.
In the application, Srivastava said superintending archaeologist (Sarnath) Avinash Mohanty is unable to appear and file the report in court due to a sudden increase in his blood pressure and deteriorating health.
In view of the circumstances, at least one more week’s time should be granted to the ASI for filing the report, Srivastava urged the court.
The court ordered the ASI to file the report by December 18, said Srivastava.
Earlier, the court had granted 10 days’ time to the ASI on November 30 and ordered it to file the report within the “provided time” after hearing the ASI’s application that was filed on November 28.
Earlier, on November 18, the Varanasi district court had given ASI 10 more days to submit the report after hearing its application filed on November 17 seeking 15 more days. On November 2, the court had granted 15 days’ time to the ASI, directing it to submit the report by November 17.
The Gyanvapi mosque’s scientific survey 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 had initially ordered the survey on July 21 and asked for submission of the report by August 4.
