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Gyanvapi mosque management committee files objection in court against ASI’s extension plea
Standing counsel for the Union government, Amit Kumar Srivastava rejected the Muslim side’s allegation of taking up digging activities.
The Muslim side on Monday filed an objection against the Archaeological Survey of India’s application in the Varanasi district court seeking more time to complete the ongoing scientific survey of Gyanvapi mosque complex and submit its report.
In its objection, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC), which manages the Gyanvapi mosque, alleged that the ASI was carrying out digging activities in the basement of the mosque complex, which was in violation of the directions of the Allahabad high court and Supreme Court.
“We filed an objection in the Varanasi district court against the application moved by ASI seeking additional eight weeks to submit the survey report,” Mumtaz Ahmad, counsel for the mosque committee, said.
The district judge, AK Vishvesh, posted the matter for hearing on September 8. The ASI’s plea, which was filed before Varanasi district court on September 2, was placed before the district judge on Monday. Both the ASI plea and the Muslim side’s objection will be heard on the same day, September 8.
“The ASI which was granted four weeks’ time on August 5 (to submit the survey report) has filed an application yet again to delay the survey proceedings,” Ahmad said. “We urged the court to reject the ASI’s application.”
In its objection, the mosque committee also claimed that a lot of soil was taken out from the basement of the Gyanvapi complex and collected on the open ground west of the mosque. “The removal of debris or soil present inside barricading near the western wall poses a threat to the Gyanvapi Masjid building,” the AIMC said in its objection.
Digging in the mosque premises and removing soil from the basement of Gyanvapi complex are contrary to the affidavit given as an undertaking by ASI in the Allahabad high court, Akhlaque Ahmad, another AIMC counsel, said.
Standing counsel for the Union government, Amit Kumar Srivastava, who had filed the application on behalf of ASI on September 2 seeking additional time to submit its survey report, rejected the Muslim side’s allegation of taking up digging activities.
“The ASI is conducting survey following the order of the court. It has not carried out any sort of digging in any part of the Gyanvapi mosque premises,” Srivastava told HT.
Since August 4, the central agency has been carrying the survey in barricaded portions of the Gyanvapi complex, excluding the sealed section, in consonance with the court’s order. The survey was ordered to determine whether the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.
