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Lucknow: A survey to work out if Gyanvapi Mosque, located next to the famous Kashi Vishwanath shrine, was built on the ruins of an older temple, was stayed by the Allahabad supreme court on Thursday. The project by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was ordered by a Varanasi court in April this year.
A single-judge supreme court bench of Justice Prakash Padia made some strong observations about the inferior court order, staying all proceedings associated with the matter there.
The Varanasi court had asked ASI to hold out a physical survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque supported a 2019 plea by a city lawyer. This plea was appended to a 1991 case, during which a bunch of city residents had contended that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had demolished an ancient Lord Vishweshwar temple and “constructed a mosque with the assistance of the ruins of the said temple”.
Challenges to the 1991 case had eventually reached the supreme court , which, in March this year, reserved its order on the matter. However, the proceedings within the Varanasi court had not been stopped
“The court below has full knowledge to the very fact that judgment has already been reserved on 15.03.2021. during this view…(it) shouldn’t have proceeded and selected the appliance filed by the plaintiffs within the original suit for a survey by Archaeological Survey of India,” the Allahabad supreme court said.
“Judicial courtesy and decorum warranted such discipline, which was expected from the court below. except for unfathomable reasons, neither of the courses was taken,” Justice Padia said.
The judge regretted that the inferior court had departed from this “traditional way”.
“I have said so with the fond hope that judicial enthusiasm shouldn’t obliterate the profound responsibility that’s expected from the court below,” he said.
In April, the Varanasi court ordered the constitution of “a five-member committee of eminent persons who are experts and well-versed within the science of archaeology, two out of which should preferably belong to the minority community”.
“The prime purpose of the archaeological survey shall be to seek out out whether the religious structure standing at the present at the ‘disputed site’ may be a superimposition, alteration or addition or there’s a structural overlapping of any kind, with or over, the other religious structure,” it said.
Days then ruling, the Waqf Board and therefore the Gyanvapi Mosque Trust approached the Allahabad supreme court challenging the order.
“Our understanding is obvious that this case is barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The Places of Worship Act was upheld by a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court within the Ayodhya judgment,” consistent with Waqf Board chairman Zufar Ahmad Farooqui.
“The status of Gyanvapi Masjid is, as such, undoubtedly ,” he had said, adding that the Varanasi writ was questionable in itself.
Technical evidence can only supplement certain foundational facts, consistent with Mr Farooqui.
“No evidence has been produced before the court that means that there was a previous existing temple at the location of the mosque,” he said.
