NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the guilty plea of the Gyanvapi Mosque leadership on the investigation into the Gyanvapi-Shringar-Gauri complex in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court is set to hear the matter amid an important development, with a court in Varanasi on Monday ordering the district administration to cordon off the survey site inside the compound where the survey team allegedly found “hacking”.
According to the Supreme Court’s updated business list for Tuesday, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and P S Narasimha was to hear the statement of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Management Committee, which manages the affairs of the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi.
The written order, approved Friday by a court headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, had ordered the guilty plea to be entered in a court headed by Justice Chandrachud. Last Friday, however, the court rejected an interim order against the ongoing inspection of the religious complex at the request of the Muslim side.
However, the CJI-led tribunal had agreed to consider including the hearing request. “Due to Huzefa Ahmadi, the lead counsel acting on behalf of the petitioner, we consider it appropriate to order the Registry to refer the matter to the Court presided over by Dr. Justice D Y Chandrachud,” the court, which also includes Justices JK Maheshwari and Hima Kohli, had said in their motion.
Mr. Ahmadi, appearing before the mosque committee, informed the court that a guilty plea had been filed against the inspection carried out at the site and that he had requested an urgent restraining order in the case. “We have filed in connection with an investigation that has been ordered to be conducted in relation to the Varanasi Property.
This (Gyan Vapi) has been a mosque since time immemorial and this is clearly forbidden by the Religious Sites Act,” said the lead attorney.
The Muslim side has referred to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991 and its Section 4, which prohibits the filing of suits or the initiation of other legal proceedings to transform the religious character of places of worship, such as existing ones, on 15 August 12, 1947.
On May 12, a local court in Varanasi had denied an application to replace the commissioner of defense whom it had commissioned to conduct a video graphics survey of the Gyanvapi Shringar Gauri complex and ordered the task to be completed by May 17.
The District Court also appointed two more lawyers to assist the Defense Commissioner in inspecting the mosque, which is located near the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Directs police to register FIR when attempting to sink exercise.
The May 12 local court order followed a petition by a group of women asking permission to worship daily Hindu deities, whose idols can be found on an outside wall of the mosque.
The mosque’s management committee had spoken out against filming in the mosque and accused the court-appointed commissioner of bias. Amid the opposition, the poll stalled for a while.
Civil judge (supreme branch) Ravi Kumar Diwakar also dismissed objections to the opening for inspection of the two locked cellars in the mosque complex, according to the lawyer representing the Hindu petitioners.
The court also ordered that the district judge and police commissioner should oversee the drill and file an FIR if anyone interfered with the survey.
He said that the survey could be held at the Gyanvapi Shringar Gauri complex between 8 am and 12 pm every day until its conclusion.
The mosque’s video graphics studio was appointed by Judge Diwakar on April 18, 2021, at the request of Delhi residents Rakhi Singh, Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, and others.
The original lawsuit was filed in 1991 in Varanasi District Court for the restoration of the old temple on the site where Gyanvapi Mosque stands today. The statement in the lawsuit that the mosque is part of the temple was included.