Varanasi | Jagran News Desk: A district court in Varanasi today will pronounce its order on whether it will hear first the Hindu petitioners’ plea to invite objections to the Gyanvapi mosque survey report or the Muslim side’s case that the writ is not maintainable.
“The hearing was completed and the decision has been kept reserved. The next date of hearing will be given. We had given an application to provide us with a CD and photographs of the report submitted by the commission,” Advocate Vishnu Jain, representing the Hindu side said yesterday. Only 23 people, including 19 counsels and four petitioners, were allowed inside the courtroom during the hearing on Monday.
Top developments from the Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath Temple Case:
– The district court today will also decide whether to hear the Muslim’s side first or the Hindu petitioners. It will also set a date for the hearing of the case.
– The hearing in the civil suit concluded on Monday after the Supreme Court said it would not interfere with the Gyanvapi mosque survey and transferred the case to the district judge in Varanasi while noting the “complexities and sensitivities involved in the matter” would require a “more senior and experienced hand”.
– The bench said District Judge should decide the maintainability of the civil suit in the Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath on priority as sought by Committee of Management Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Varanasi.
– The court had also said that “selective leaks” to the press must stop, as Hindu petitioners had released details of the mosque filming report just hours after it was handed over to a Varanasi court in a sealed cover on Thursday
– A fresh plea seeking permission to worship the “Shivling” claimed to have been found on the Gyanvapi mosque premises during a videography survey ordered by a lower court was also filed.
– The Hindu side argued that since a court-appointed commission has completed its survey work, the opponents should present their objections to it. Madan Mohan Yadav, a lawyer for the Hindu side said they pleaded to make available the commission’s report and videography done by it to present its side on it.
– Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee’s lawyer Mohammad Tauhid Khan argued that the writ is not maintainable under order 7 and Rule 11 of the CPC (Civil Procedure Code), hence, it should be dismissed.
– On May 16, the lower court had directed the district administration to seal a spot in the Gyanvapi Masjid complex after counsels representing the Hindu petitioners said a Shivling was found during a court-mandated videography survey. A mosque management committee spokesperson disputed the claim, telling a television channel that the object was part of a “fountain”.
– The Hindu side claimed that the Shivling was found close to the “wazookhana”–a small reservoir used by Muslim devotees to perform ritual ablutions before offering the namaz.
– Hindu women plaintiffs who have filed a civil suit before Varanasi court seeking declaration and asserting the right to Darshan and worship Hindu deities whose idols are located on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi has referred to stand taken by the British government in a 1936 suit seeking it to be declared as Waqf property.
