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ASI says will carry out survey on Gyanvapi premises if HC orders
The ASI on Monday told the Allahabad high court that the government agency will abide by the court’s decision on conducting a survey in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Masjid complex in Varanasi.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Monday told the Allahabad high court that the government agency will abide by the court’s decision on conducting a survey in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Masjid complex in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi city.
An affidavit by ASI director general Usha Sharma said that the agency will take up the survey work if the Allahabad high court ordered it. In April, a local court in Varanasi had asked ASI to survey the site after a batch of petitions claimed that the 17th-century mosque was built after partially destroying a temple. The mosque management committee challenged the verdict in the high court.
According to senior advocate, Shashi Prakash Singh, the additional solicitor general of India, the DG in its affidavit has further stated that the Gyanvapi mosque is not in the list of protected monuments.
Further, the survey said it is governed by the Ancient Monument Act and also submitted a list of the work it carries out.
Separate proceedings are ongoing in the Varanasi district court on a petition by five Hindu women who have asked for regular prayer rights to Hindu idols at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal, located inside the mosque complex. That case grabbed national headlines when Hindu groups claimed that a “shivling” was found on the premises, though Muslim petitioners argued that the structure was part of a ritual ablution fountain.
Justice Prakash Padia of the high court extended till November 30 the interim stay on a Varanasi court order for the ASI to conduct the survey.
The high court was hearing a petition filed
by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the mosque, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and others. Additional solicitor general Shashi Prakash Singh said ASI had said that Gyanvapi Masjid was not on the agency’s list of protected monuments. The high court granted 10 days’ time to the mosque management committee.
The religious dispute is decades old and first reached the courts in 1991, when local Hindu priests sought permission to worship in the mosque area. The hearing was later suspended by the Allahabad high court. But the case gained steam in December 2019 when Vijay Shankar Rastogi filed an application in the civil court as the next friend of the presiding deity of the temple, Swayambhu Jyotirling Bhagwan Vishweshwar. Rastogi demanded that the mosque area be surveyed to prove that the Muslims had occupied parts of the temple complex and built a mosque there.
On April 8, Varanasi civil judge (senior division) Ashutosh Tiwari ordered an archaeological survey of the Gyanvapi complex, saying the exercise was required to decide on pleas that allege the mosque was built by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after partially demolishing a Hindu shrine. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will conduct the exercise at its expense without any media briefings, the judge ordered.
Also read: No carbon dating at Gyanvapi, says court
The order was almost immediately challenged. The petitioners contended that the suit in the Varanasi court was not maintainable under Section 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which froze lawsuits to reclaim any place of worship after India was declared independent, except Ayodhya. In March, the Supreme Court indicated it may review the 1991 law.
In September 2021, the high court stayed the order.
