Varanasi:
The Supreme Court of Varanasi is set to begin hearing the Gyanvapi Mosque case today.
Here are the top 10 updates on this big story
The court of district judge AK Vishevesh on Tuesday had decided to first hear the mosque committee’s plea, challenging the maintainability of a petition filed by five Hindu women who had requested entry into the Gyanvapi mosque complex, alleging the presence of idols of it. gods and goddesses in the mosque. mosque.
The subdistrict court had also ordered the two parties to object within a week to the report of filming in the mosque complex required by the court.
The mosque committee says filming inside the mosque violates a 1991 law that prevents changing the character of a place of worship in the country.
The Supreme Court said Friday it had moved the Gyanvapi case to a “senior and experienced judge” given the “complexity” and “sensitivity” of the issue.
The Supreme Court also asked the Subdistrict Court to give priority to decide whether the investigation at the Gyanvapi Mosque and the petition that led to the inspection was ‘tenable’ or not.
The Supreme Court also said the previous May 17 preliminary injunction protecting the area where the “Shivling” is said to have been found and allowing Muslims to offer namaz would remain in effect pending the hearing of the plea from the Supreme Court. mosque committee, and “then for a period of eight weeks to allow any party aggrieved by the order of the district judge to exercise its rights and remedies in accordance with the law.”
A separate petition banning Muslims from entering the Gyanvapi Mosque complex was transferred Wednesday from a civil judge’s court to an expedited court in Varanasi for a hearing on May 30.
Early last week, lawyers for Hindu petitioners claimed that a ‘Shivling’ had been found during the videographic search of the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
The claim was disputed by the mosque committee members, who said it was part of the water fountain mechanism in the wazookhana reservoir, which is used by devotees to perform ritual ablutions before offering namaz. The court had then ordered the sealing of the ‘wazookhana’.
The court-ordered shootings were carried out at Gyanvapi Mosque on May 14, 15 and 16, and the report was submitted to a court in Varanasi on May 19.