ASI can survey Gyanvapi, but no digging: SC

Tight security outside Gyanvapi, in Varanasi, on Friday. Pic/PTI

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Allahabad High Court order allowing a scientific survey at Gyanvapi to determine if the mosque was built upon a temple, notwithstanding the assertion by the Muslim side that it will "reopen wounds of the past".

A bench led by the CJI, however, asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) not to take recourse to any invasive act during the survey. The bench took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ASI and the Uttar Pradesh government, stating that no excavation will be done during the survey.

The SC added that the evidentiary value of the survey was open to objections. Consequently, the ASI report, by itself, does not amount to determination of the matters in dispute.

During the hearing, Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee said, "The ASI survey intends to go into history as to what happened 500 years ago, it will reopen wounds of the past." Their lawyer Huzefa Ahmadi said the survey violates the Places of Worship (special provisions) Act, 1991 which prohibited change of character of religious places as they existed in 1947.

Hindu activists claim a temple on the site was demolished in the 17th century on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

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