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Gyanvapi row: Varanasi court rejects plea seeking carbon-dating on 'Shivling'
Gyanvapi mosque row: The court has held several hearings on the matter.
In the row linked to the Gyanvapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, the district court on Friday took up the plea which had sought carbon dating or any other scientific investigation of the Shivling like structure found on the compound of the mosque. The court has rejected the demand to carry out the carbon-dating.
Madan Mohan, one of the counsels representing the plaintiffs in Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case, rejected the plea seeking carbon dating or any scientific investigation of the structure which the plaintiffs claimed to be a Shivling and other surrounding structures. He said the court ordered to preserve the structure in its original state.
Earlier this week, the court had reserved its judgement during the hearing in Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi complex case after the Muslim side had submitted its response.
“The court has rejected our demand of seeking carbon dating. We'll move to Supreme Court against this order, and challenge it there. I cannot announce the date as of now, but we'll soon challenge this order in Supreme Court,” Advocate Vishnu Jain, representing the Hindu side in Gyanvapi case, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
While objecting to the plea from the plaintiff seeking carbon dating and scientific investigation of the fountain, which they claim to be a Shivling and other structures on the Gyanvapi mosque compound, the counsels of Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC), the Muslim side, submitted their response in the last hearing, stating that carbon dating of the structure is not ‘feasible’ and ‘irrelevant’. “Carbon dating of the stone is not possible, it is non-feasible, since stone is not an organic matter”, Raees Ahmed, one of the counsels of AIMC, the committee that takes care of the Gyanvapi mosque, said in the court.
Besides, the AIMC counsel in the response also stated that the structure is not the part of the suit property and hence carrying out carbon dating or scientific investigation to verify its age is ‘irrelevant’.
The demands of carbon-dating had also led to differing opinions among the petitioners of the Hindu side. One of the five Hindu women - originally linked to the Gyanvapi suit - had objected to it.
