ASI team leaves after conducting scientific survey at the Gyanvapi mosque complex, in Varanasi, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.
Credit: PTI Photo
Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking sealing of the entire Gyanvapi mosque premises and banning the entry of non-Hindus.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Ashutosh Srivastava allowed the PIL, filed by Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh president Jitendra Singh Visen and another person, to be withdrawn after observing that the petition did not have any merit.
The PIL had sought a ban on the entry of non-Hindus in the premises until the verdict in the ongoing Shringar Gauri case, wherin the Hindu petitioners had sought permission to worship idols on the walls of the mosque. The PIL had also sought a direction to preserve the Hindu religious symbols recovered inside the mosque premises.
The ASI survey of the mosque premises entered its sixth day on Tuesday. The team was currently surveying the cellar in the mosque. Some team members also climbed atop the 'gumbad' (dome) of the Mosque on Tuesday.
The Allahabad High Court has last week rejected the petition filed by the Muslim litigants seeking a stay on the Varanasi court's order for a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque by ASI. It ruled that the survey would continue.
The ASI would conduct the survey of the premises barring the 'wuzukhana' (the area where the Muslims wash themselves before offering prayers), the court had said.
Gyanvapi mosque has been a bone of contention between the two communities for the past several decades, but there was renewed clamor to ''take back'' the Kashi Vishwanath Temple premises by the saffron outfits after the favourable decision of the Supreme Court in the Ram Temple case.
The Hindu petitioners contended that a part of the temple had been demolished by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century. The Muslim side contended that the mosque existed before the reign of Aurangzeb and also claimed that the same had also been mentioned in the land records.