Gyanvapi: Puja starts in cellar, Supreme Court sends mosque panel to Allahabad HC

The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages the mosque, moved an urgent application before the Supreme Court seeking its intervention against the district court’s order, but was told to first approach the Allahabad High Court.

Speaking to The Indian Express Thursday evening, Senior Advocate S F A Naqvi, who moved an application in the High Court on behalf of the mosque committee, said, “We moved an application challenging the district court order passed on Wednesday, which allowed puja to be done in the southern cellar. In our application, we have written that despite the district judge saying that the said property be given for puja within seven days, the administration entered it late night Wednesday itself, just hours after the order.”

A priest performs prayers in the basement of Gyanvapi mosque following court orders allowing the resumption of the practice that was discontinued three decades back, in Varanasi. (PTI)

“We have also said that our application on (Civil Procedure Code) Order VII Rule 11 on maintainability (of a suit) has been listed for a later date, while other aspects are being decided. We have said that this order (Wednesday) is virtually a final order in the case in the garb of an interim order. This type of order can only be passed after the evidence is examined by a court, but that has not happened,” he said.

“We first mentioned the application before the Chief Justice of the High Court, who said we should submit it to the Registry. We did so… We will wait to see if this matter is listed tomorrow,” Naqvi said.

Earlier, in the early hours of Thursday, Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, who is the Advocate-on-Record for the mosque committee, moved a “letter of extreme urgency” before the Supreme Court Registrar, stating: “Under the garb of the order dated 31.01.2024, the local administration, in hot haste, has deployed a massive police force on site and is in the process of cutting the grills located in the southern side of the mosque so as to create an entrance therefrom into the mosque premises to allow puja in the basement of the mosque. This action is against the letter and spirit of the orders.”

Ayyubi said “there is no reason for the administration to undertake this task in hot haste in the dead of the night as the order passed by the trial court had already given them one week to make the necessary arrangements. The obvious reason for such unseemly haste is that the administration, in collusion with the plaintiffs, is trying to foreclose any attempt by the mosque managing committee to avail of their remedies against the said order by presenting them with a fait accompli”.

It is learnt that Ayyubi was told in the morning that the committee should first approach the High Court against the district court order.

On Wednesday, District Judge A K Vishvesha, in his order, said, “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 cellar, which Hindu plaintiffs call ‘Vyasji ka tehkhana’ (Vyasji’s cellar), is part of the mosque complex.

The district court’s direction for puja in the cellar came on the petition of Shailendra Kumar Pathak, head priest of Acharya Ved Vyas Peeth temple, who said that the Vyas family had been offering prayers in the cellar even during the rule of the British but the practice was stopped in December 1993.

Hindu litigants, appearing before the court, have claimed that the Gyanvapi mosque was built on the site of the earlier Kashi Vishwanath temple after its destruction in the 17th century.

On Thursday, after puja commenced in the cellar, Vishnu Bhushan Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust, said that puja would be conducted five times a day, mirroring the schedule at the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

Only one priest, accompanied by an assistant, has been permitted inside the cellar for now, Mishra said, adding that people can observe and worship from a distance.

When puja began Wednesday night, family members of Pandit Somnath Vyas, whose forefathers served as priests at the temple, were present.

Jitendra Vyas (62), Pandit Somnath’s grandson, said he received urgent phone calls around 11 pm Wednesday, asking him to reach the southern cellar immediately. Once there, he saw senior police and administration officers outside, and the entry to the cellar secured with iron rods. The district administration used a gas cutter to remove part of the barricade to allow access to the cellar.

Jitendra Vyas said he was told at the last minute not to enter the cellar.

Before the start of the puja, officials and a temple priest inspected the interiors of the cellar. It was cleaned and eight idols, stored in the treasury after being found by the Archaeological Survey of India, were brought and duly installed.

Varanasi Commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma said the puja was performed by Pandit Om Prakash Mishra, the only person present in the cellar.

Meanwhile, the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee released “an important appeal” Thursday, asking Muslims of Varanasi to keep their shops and business establishments shut Friday. It said “from afternoon prayers till evening prayers, people will stay engaged in prayers” and urged “everyone to maintain peace”.