NEW DELHI, Mar 1
The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear, along with other petitions, an appeal by the Anjuman Intezamia Committee of Gyanvapi mosque challenging Allahabad High Court order holding that the Hindu plaintiffs’ lawsuit for worship pending before Varanasi court was not barred by the Places of Worship Act (Special Provisions), 1991.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said it will tag the appeal against the High Court order along with the main case pending before the court.
“We will tag this with the main case,” it said. The Allahabad High Court on December 19, 2023, had said that the suit filed before the Varanasi district court was not barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits “conversion” of the “religious character” of the place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
Dismissing the pleas challenging the maintainability of a 1991 suit seeking the “restoration” of a temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque stands, the High court had said that the “religious character” of a disputed place can only be decided by the court.
There were five connected petitions on the maintainability of the 1991 suit and a survey of the mosque premises. The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee of Gyanvapi mosque and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board had filed the petitions over the years.
The suit was filed in 1991 by Hindu devotees and on behalf of the deities’ seeking the right to worship in the Gyanvapi mosque adjoining the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee of Gyanvapi mosque and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board had challenged its maintainability, citing the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act.
A Varanasi court is currently hearing a suit relating to the ownership, religious character, and worshipping rights.
The High Court had earlier allowed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to proceed with the survey of the Gyanvapi complex. The ASI report stated that there was a temple which existed at the site before the construction of the mosque.
Recently, the Varanasi court had allowed the performance of pujas in the Vyas Tehkhana’ (southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque).
