Plea to extend protection of area: SC to hear Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque case today

Jain also pointed out that the Varanasi District Court had rejected the mosque committee’s opposition to the suit by five Hindu women, who sought the right to worship deities located within the Gyanvapi mosque premises all year round. The mosque committee had claimed that the suit was barred by the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which prohibits conversion of nature of places of worship after August 15, 1947.

The CJI pointed out that he will have to constitute the bench and agreed to take it up at 3 pm on Friday.

Hearing a petition by five Hindu women seeking right to worship at Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal, on the outer wall of the mosque complex, a Varanasi court had on April 8 appointed an Advocate Commissioner to carry out an inspection of the site, to “prepare videography of the action”, and submit a report.

The mosque committee had challenged this before the Allahabad High Court, which dismissed the appeal on April 21. The committee then approached the Supreme Court.

Hearing it in May this year, the SC, however, said that “ascertainment of the religious character of a place is not barred by… the Act” and declined to stay proceedings before the Varanasi court. It asked the district magistrate to secure the area where the ‘Shivling’ was claimed to have been found, without impeding or restricting the rights of Muslims to access and offer namaz at the mosque.

Taking into account the “complexity of the issues involved in the civil suit…and their sensitivity”, the top court transferred the proceedings pending before the Civil Judge (Senior Division), Varanasi, to the District Judge, Varanasi, for “trial and all interlocutory and ancillary proceedings”. The bench also asked the district court to first decide the application filed by the mosque committee, challenging the maintainability of the suit by the Hindu petitioners.