Gyanvapi row: Allahabad High Court rejects suits file by Masjid Committee

Gyanvapi mosque cordoned off for ASI survey/ PTI

The Allahabad High Court dismissed the five suits challenging the maintainability of a case pending before a Varanasi court over the Gyanvapi row. The civil suit submitted in Varanasi court sought the restoration of the temple at the site where Gyanvapi mosque exists, stated a report in PTI.

While pronouncing the judgement on Tuesday, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal, stated that the suit filed before the Varanasi court in 1991 is maintainable and not barred by the Places of Religious Worship Act, 1991. The HC also directed a comprehensive survey of the Gyanvapi mosque site.

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According to the PTI report, the petitions filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC) and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board also challenged the Varanasi court order dated April 8, 2021, to conduct a comprehensive survey of the Gyanvapi mosque.

Reportedly, the AIMC, which looks after Gyanvapi mosque's management adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple at Varanasi, challenged the maintainability of the suit before Varanasi court wherein Hindu petitioners have sought the restoration of a temple; they claim that Gyanvapi mosque is part of the temple.

The AIMC and UP Sunni Central Waqf Board's primary contention is that the suit is prohibited by the Places of Worship Act (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, which restricted altering the character of religious places as it existed on August 15, 1947.

Lawyer Vijay Shankar Rastogi told ANI that five writ petitions were pending in the High Court of which 2 petitions were filed by UP Sunni Waqf Board and Anjuman Intezamia Masjid. "The old writ petitions have been filed against the maintainability of the suit. These 2 petitions are against the 1998 judgment of the District Judge, Varanasi," Rastogi said.

Meanwhile, the president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association, Ashok Kumar Singh, hailed the verdict given the prolonged pendency of the case. He added that the Muslim side has the option to appeal to a higher court

Previously, the Supreme Court declined to intervene in the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court's order transferring the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi Mosque dispute case from a single-judge bench to another bench, dismissing an appeal by the AIMC.

With agency inputs