Security personnel outside the court during hearing of the Gyanvapi mosque survey case, in Varanasi, Tuesday, May 10, 2022.
Highlights
- The video survey was supposed to be done inside the mosque on May 6, 7 as per the court's order
- However, survey couldn't be done as Muslims protested against the videography
- The Gyanvapi mosque shares a boundary wall with the famed Kashi Vishwanath temple
The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) has said that it will approach the Supreme Court in the Gyanvapi Mosque survey case. The foundation that is overseeing the construction of the mosque in Ayodhya's Dhannipur village said that the videography being carried out at the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi near the famed Kashi Vishwanath Temple is a clear violation of the Places of Worship Act, 1991.
IICF is a Supreme Court-mandated trust that owns the five-acre land in Ayodhya allotted by the Supreme Court for the construction of a mosque, in lieu of the Babri Masjid land.
According to the IICF, that Act states that a religious place will retain the same character it had on August 15, 1947. The Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya was kept out of the purview of the Act.
"We will not spare any effort in getting the Ayodhya verdict implemented in letter and spirit. We will approach the apex court to get the Places of Worship Act, 1991 implemented. Any court of law challenging the status of any place of worship in India other than the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya violates the November 9, 2019 verdict of the SC," IICF secretary Athar Hussain said.
Gyanvapi case hearing
Meanwhile, the Varanasi district court is likely to pass an order today on changing the court commissioner appointed to conduct a video survey of the Shringar Gauri temple-Gyanvapi mosque complex.
Madan Mohan Yadav, the lawyer of Hindu petitioners who has requested they be allowed to perform daily worship of idols of some deities located on the mosque's western wall, said both sides presented their arguments before Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar.
Abhay Nath Yadav, who is representing the Gyanvapi mosque management committee (Anjuman Intezamiya Masajid Committee), said the arguments over his plea for removing advocate Ajay Kumar Mishra as the court commissioner for the survey went on for two hours, but remained inconclusive. The court commissioner had on Friday conducted an inconclusive survey of some areas outside Gyanvapi Masjid in the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex amid brief sloganeering by two sides.
The Hindu side prayed to the court for a videography and survey inside the mosque area on which the mosque committee sought time till Wednesday to present its objection, Madan Mohan Yadav said. Mishra has previously pleaded for more time to complete the task.
Last month, Judge Diwakar had ordered the survey earlier on a plea by five women seeking the court's permission to perform daily worship of idols of some deities located on the western wall of the mosque.
The mosque management committee has approached the court for the appointment of another advocate as the court commissioner, accusing Mishra of favouring Hindu petitioners in his court-mandated task.
Mishra and lawyers representing both the Hindu and Muslim sides had on Saturday gone inside the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri temple complex. Despite waiting for nearly two hours inside the complex, they had not been able to accomplish the work and had to come out of the complex. Counsel Vishnu Jain, representing the five women petitioners, too had gone inside the complex with Mishra on Saturday.
After emerging from there, he had told reporters that men present inside the mosque did not allow the survey team to enter the mosque area to conduct the survey.
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