SC to hear Gyanvapi mosque committee's plea against Allahabad HC order
Gyanvapi mosque committee's plea against the Allahabad HC order which held that the suit for restoration of the temple is maintainable. "We will tag this with the main case," a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said. The plea in the top court was filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, the committee that manages the affairs of the Gyanvapi mosque.
On December 19 last year, the Allahabad HC had dismissed pleas challenging the maintainability of a 1991 suit seeking the "restoration" of a temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque stands. The HC had said that the "religious character" of a disputed place can only be decided by the court. It had dismissed five related petitions -- on maintainability and also against a survey of the mosque premises -- filed over the years by the mosque committee and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board.
The HC had held that the suit filed before the district court is not barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which forbids "conversion" of the "religious character" of a place from what existed on August 15, 1947. The suit was filed by petitioners seeking the right to worship in the Gyanvapi mosque adjoining the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Muslim litigants had challenged its maintainability, citing the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act.
The Varanasi district court had on January 31 ruled that a priest can perform prayers before the idols in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque. The mosque committee moved the court to challenge the verdict. It has also moved a petition in the Allahabad High Court against the district court verdict.
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