A Varanasi court may deliver its verdict on Monday on a plea filed by the Hindu side that seeks permission to worship the ‘Shivling’ said to have been found inside Gyanvapi mosque’s wazookhana.
According to local reports, the petition has been filed by Kiran Singh, wife of Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh president Jitendra Singh Bisen. Besides permission to worship ‘Shivling’, a demand has been raised to hand over the entire Gyanvapi complex to the Hindus and ban entry of minority community in premises. The Muslims are presently allowed to offer namaz in the masjid complex.
The matter, being heard in court of civil judge (senior division), comes just days after the Supreme Court ordered that the ‘Shivling’ claimed to have been found inside the mosque be protected until further orders.
Last week on Friday, the Supreme Court had extended till further orders the protection of the area where the ‘shivling’ was claimed to have been found.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices Surya Kant and PS Narasimha also allowed the Hindu parties to move an application before the Varanasi district judge for consolidation of all lawsuits filed on the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri row.
On Friday, cases related to the Gyanvapi mosque – located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple – also came up briefly in the Allahabad High Court and the Varanasi district court.
The case in the high court goes back to 1991 while the one in the Varanasi court relates to the more recent row -– over permission to allow regular worship of idols on the mosque’s rear wall.
The Supreme Court also directed the Hindu parties to file their replies within three weeks on the appeal by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee challenging the Allahabad High Court order on the appointment of a survey commissioner.
On May 17, the SC had passed an interim order directing the Varanasi district magistrate to ensure protection of the area inside the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex where the structure claimed to be a ‘shivling’ was found during a survey.
The mosque committee, however, maintained that the structure was part of the water fountain mechanism at the ‘wazookhana‘ reservoir where devotees perform ablutions before offering namaz.
The video survey was ordered by the court of the civil judge (senior division) in Varanasi. The SC transferred the case to the district judge on May 20, pointing at the “complexities” and the “sensitivity” of the issue and saying that a more senior judicial officer should handle it.
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