Varanasi District and Sessions Judge Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha, who ordered a “scientific survey” of the Gyanvapi mosque by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and subsequently allowed the Hindu side to offer prayers at the southern cellar of the complex before he retired from service on January 31, has been appointed as the Lokpal of the state government-run Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow. The judge on July 21 last year had directed the ASI to ascertain whether the mosque was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”. An official at the varsity said the primary role of the Lokpal is “to resolve conflicts among students”. Speaking to The Indian Express on Thursday, Professor Yashwant Virodaya, media in-charge of the university, said the appointment came into effect on February 26. “He (Vishvesha) visited the university on Wednesday for a meeting with Vice-Chancellor Prof Himanshu Shekhar Jha,” said Virodaya. The criteria for the appointment for the post as per the UGC (University Grants Commission) guidelines mandates that a person can either be a former V-C at a university, or someone who is a retired judge with experience of 10 years, or someone who has been a professor while holding the post of dean or president with experience of 10 years, he added. On January 25, the ASI survey report was handed over to the litigants and it was made public after an order for doing so was passed by the now-retired judge. Vishvesha passed the order allowing puja in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque complex on January 31, his last working day. He wrote in his order, “District Magistrate, Varanasi/Receiver is being directed to get puja, raag bhog done by a priest, designated by the plaintiff and Kashi Vishwanath Trust, of idols in the cellar to the south, which is disputed, of building situated on settlement plot no. 9130, police station Chowk, District Varanasi. For this, suitable arrangements must be made with iron barricading and other things within seven days.” The district administration started puja at the cellar the same day. Vishvesha, a native of Haridwar, started his judicial service as 'munsif kotdwar, Pauri Garhwal (now in Uttarakhand) in June 1990. He was posted as the District and Sessions Judge, Varanasi, in 2021.
