ASI should survey entire Gyanvapi mosque: Application in Varanasi court

The intervening application was filed in the court of District Judge Dr Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha on behalf of five women, who had filed the petition seeking permission to be allowed to pray at “a Shringar Gauri Sthal” inside the complex. It was in response to this petition that a Civil Judge (Senior Division), Varanasi, ordered a videographic inspection. During the inspection that concluded on May 16 last year, a structure — claimed to be a “Shivling” by the Hindu side and a “fountain” by the Muslim side — was found on the mosque premises.

Speaking to The Indian Express on Tuesday evening, Special Counsel Rajesh Mishra, who is representing the State in the case, said that an application was moved by the five petitioners, praying that a scientific survey be done of the entire Gyanvapi mosque complex.

“The High Court has recently passed an order after getting a detailed reply from the ASI. The High Court then ordered a scientific investigation of the ‘shivling’ and the site where it was found. This new application requests that a survey of the entire land number 9130 be done, which means the area which is barricaded, which is the Gyanvapi mosque. They have not sought a survey of the temple, but of the mosque premises,” said Mishra.

“The petitioners have also stressed on a dome that was found under the mosque’s dome during the survey last year. There are three domes of the mosque, and another was found underneath them. The petitioners are saying that it is the dome of the temple that existed there. There is also a staircase which they are saying should be investigated by the different scientific methods,” said Mishra.

In an order passed on May 12, the Allahabad High Court had directed the ASI to appear before the Varanasi District Judge on May 22 and to do the needful for carrying out the “scientific investigation” of the “shivling” said to have been found at the Gyanvapi mosque premises in Varanasi.

“While proceeding in the matter and viewing the things from that angle, the overall impression that trickles out from the careful perusal of the report of the Archaeological Survey of India indicates, to all intents and purposes, that scientific investigation of the site can be suitably carried out without causing harm to the site/Shivlingam in issue as such it can be concluded that the Shivlimgam/site would remain preserved and protected even after the scientific investigation for determining the age, nature and status of the site/Shivlingam is done,” the court had said, allowing the civil revision filed by Laxmi Devi and three others.

The High Court passed the order after “carefully” perusing “the original (52-page) report” submitted by the Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, Sarnath Circle, Varanasi, in April.