A local court in Varanasi on Thursday directed the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque compound adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple to find out whether it was a “superimposition, alteration or addition or there is structural overlapping of any kind, with or over, any other religious structure”.
Amid growing concerns over vaccine shortage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday told Chief Ministers of States that the surge of COVID-19 crossing peak levels of the first wave required a firm strategy of “Test, Track and Treat” while seeming to rule out any kind of large scale lockdown.
Gyanvapi radar archaeological survey ordered The directive comes on a 30-year-old petition that claimed a temple existed under the mosque at the site
A Varanasi court has asked the central government to conduct an archaeological survey of the Gyanvapi area through radar technology, the directive coming on a 30-year-old petition that claimed a temple existed under the mosque at the site.
A lawyer for the Muslim side said the order on a controversy that carries echoes of the Ayodhya dispute would be challenged in high court.
The Gyanvapi mosque shares a compound with the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Sangh parivar outfits claim that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had got a part of the Kashi Vishwanath temple demolished in 1669 and had the mosque built over a well that contained a Shivalinga.
Opposition guarded as BJP welcomes ASI survey of Kashi temple and Gyanvapi mosque
Top Muslim leaders said they would challenge the Varanasi court order while AIMIM questions legality of order. Opposition parties such as SP, BSP and TMC have refused to comment.
ThePrint Team 9 April, 2021 6:36 pm IST Text Size:
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New Delhi: A day after a Varanasi court Thursday ordered an archaeological survey of the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Gyanvapi mosque premises to resolve a long-standing dispute involving the two shrines, the BJP welcomed the move pointing out it has faith in the judicial process while opposition parties responded in a guarded manner. Prominent Muslim leaders though, said they would file an appeal in high court.
ASI survey in Gyanvapi mosque should not be allowed to resurrect disputes buried by law
The order of a civil court in Varanasi that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) should conduct a survey to ascertain whether the Gyanvapi mosque was built over a demolished Hindu temple is an unconscionable intervention that will open the floodgates for another protracted religious dispute. The order, apparently in gross violation of the explicit legislative prohibition on any litigation over the status of places of worship, is likely to give a fillip to majoritarian and revanchist forces that earlier carried on the Ram Janmabhoomi movement over a site in Ayodhya. That dispute culminated in the country’s highest court handing over the site to the very forces that conspired to illegally demolish the Babri Masjid. The plaintiffs, who have filed a suit as representatives of Hindu faith to reclaim the land on which the mosque stands, have now succeeded in getting the court to commission an AS
Varanasi: The district court in Varanasi gave its verdict on Thursday allowing the archaeological survey of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi mosque complex.
In its order, the court of civil judge (senior division), fast track, Ashutosh Tiwai directed the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India to get a comprehensive archaeological survey of the entire Gyanvapi compound done.
The court directed the ASI DG to constitute a five-member committee of eminent persons who are experts and well-versed in the science of archaeology, two of which should preferably belong to the minority community.
In its order, the court also directed the DG to appoint an eminent and highly-experienced person, who can be regarded as expert in the science of archaeology, to act as observer. “Such person should preferably be a scholarly personality and established academician of any central university,” it said.