A plea by the Gyanvapi Mosque Management Committee against a scientific survey of a structure inside the mosque premises will be heard by the Supreme Court on Friday.
The structure is claimed to be a Shivling by Hindus and a fountain by Muslims. The committee’s senior lawyer Huzefa Ahmedi requested an urgent hearing from Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.
Ahmedi said that the high court had allowed an application for carbon dating of the structure last week, while the final judgment was still pending.
He added that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was supposed to start the study on May 22. The CJI agreed to hear the matter on Friday.
The high court had overturned a Varanasi district court order that had denied carbon dating of the structure, which was discovered during a survey last year.
The high court directed the district judge to follow the law on the application by Hindu devotees who wanted a scientific investigation of the structure.
The high court accepted the revision petition by Laxmi Devi and three others who had challenged the Varanasi court order in October 2022.
Carbon dating is a technique to estimate the age of very old objects by measuring the amount of different types of carbon in them.
The Gyanvapi controversy goes back several years. In August 2021, five women had filed a petition in a local court seeking unrestricted worship at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal inside the complex, which has idols of Hindu deities.
The complex was surveyed by the local court in April 2022 amid protests. The Hindu side said they discovered a Shivling in the last moments of the survey.
The Muslim side said it was part of a fountain for washing. The court secured the whole complex. The Supreme Court moved the case from the Varanasi civil judge to the district judge and safeguarded the site in May 2022.
The district court said the Hindu women’s pleas were valid in September.
Four out of five women asked for carbon dating or scientific study of the structure, the complex walls and the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal.
The mosque committee and one Hindu petitioner, Rakhi Singh, opposed the request. Singh said it was a publicity stunt and carbon dating the ‘shivling’ was disrespectful.
The district court dismissed the request on October 14, following Supreme Court orders to seal the premises.