ASI team stops Gyanvapi mosque survey as Supreme Court orders halt
mosque — just hours after beginning the exercise Monday morning — following a Supreme Court order. The Varanasi district court had ordered the ASI Friday to conduct a survey, using technologies like ground penetrating radar and excavations, if necessary, to determine if a temple existed earlier at the same place. The mosque is located next to the Vishwanath temple.
The Supreme Court order came while the ASI team was inside the complex. It directed halting the exercise till 5 pm on Wednesday, giving time to the mosque committee to appeal in the Allahabad High Court against the district court's direction. Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma confirmed that the survey work stopped after the top court's order.
The ASI team entered the Gyanvapi complex around 7 am. Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, a counsel for the Hindu petitioners, said the survey work lasted for about four hours. The complex was inspected and measured and teams were deployed at its four corners, he said.
The proceedings were recorded by cameras installed at the four corners of the mosque, he added. The stones and bricks at the complex were inspected, he said. «We are sure that the entire complex belongs to the temple and the result of the survey will be in our favour,» he said.
Vishnu Shankar Jain, another counsel for the Hindu side, said, «We will go to the high court and argue on this issue within two days.» He said the Muslim side gave a wrong impression that «vandalism» was going on in the complex when only measuring and mapping was being carried out. Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Lucknow's city qazi, welcomed the Supreme Court's stay on the ASI survey. He hoped the Muslim side
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