6. A week’s wait for ASI to know its job at Gyanvapi

| Jul 27, 2023, 22:46 IST

ASI asked to wait

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday reserved till August 3 its verdict on a plea against a Varanasi district court order directing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a survey to determine if the Gyanvapi mosque was built upon a temple.
Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker’s bench ordered that the stay on the ASI survey would continue till August 3.
The high court was hearing the plea filed by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, which manages the mosque.

In the court

The Uttar Pradesh government told the court that there is no concern over maintaining law and order if the ASI conducts its survey on the Gyanvapi premises.
The Hindu side presented some photographs of the western side of the mosque showing the existence of Hindu idols and their worship.
The ASI told the HC that it was not going to dig the structure.
Earlier, the Muslim side had rejected the Hindu side’s claim of the site having been a temple as “fiction”.

A timeline

The Gyanvapi mosque case took a turn last year, when a Varanasi court, on a petition by women devotees, ordered an ASI survey of the mosque area.
The survey ‘discovered’ a Shivling on May 16 last year in the ablution area. The Muslim side rejected the ASI report saying it was not a Shivling but a fountain.
On October 4, 2022, the Varanasi court rejected a plea for a scientific survey and carbon dating of the “Shivling” — which the high court set aside on May 12 this year, allowing the survey.
On May 19, the top court stayed the high court order.
On July 21, the Varanasi court ordered the ASI survey of Gyanvapi complex on an application moved by four Hindu women.
The Muslim side moved the top court, which sent the matter to the high court, halting the ASI survey on July 24 till July 26.
Now, a ruling is expected on August 3. Watch here

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