Gyanvapi mosque case: Mosque panel raises question on case transfer after hearing
Allahabad High Court on Monday fixed September 12 as the next date of hearing in the Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute.
A single bench had last month reserved its verdict for pronouncement on Monday, August 28, but on Friday last week, the matter was suddenly transferred for hearing by the bench of chief justice of the high court, a development that the Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee questioned.
Verdict on five matters, including a challenge to the maintainability of the 1991 suit which claimed that the Gyanvapi mosque was built on the structure of the old Shiva temple and sought the declaration of the mosque as part of the temple as well as a challenge to the 2021 order of a Varanasi court directing the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a comprehensive survey of the mosque was to be delivered on Monday. The single judge bench of Justice Prakash Padia had, after months of hearing, fixed August 28 as the date of delivery of his verdict on the pleas.
However, last Friday, the case was transferred without any explanation to the bench of chief justice Pritinker Diwaker.
SFA Naqvi, senior counsel representing the Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee told the court that the matters had been heard extensively over 75 dates and the judgement was to be delivered on Monday. He also cited a previous high court order which said that a case part heard by a bench has to be heard by that bench itself unless the judge has retired or due to other circumstances none of which applied in this case.
