Post-Babri, SC to hear petition today against survey at Gyanvapi mosque

Masjid Body Cites 1991 Act, But Validity Of That Legislation is Under Challenge

- Dhananjay.Mahapatra

New Delhi: After deciding the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, the Supreme Court will on Tuesday legally grapple with a potential Ayodhya-type dispute at its nascent stage when it hears a mosque management committee's plea challenging an order from a Varanasi court directing a survey at the Gyanvapi mosque.

Five Hindu women, led by Rakhi Singh, through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain had moved a Varanasi civil judge seeking unhindered right to worship goddess Shringar Devi and other deities inside Gyanvapi mosque, which was earlier the original Kashi-Vishwanath temple but converted into a mosque by the then Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. On their plea, the trial court had on April 8 last year ordered the appointment of an advocate commissioner for local inspection and survey of the property.

This was challenged by the Committee of Management Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, Varanasi, before the Allahabad HC on the ground that a similar suit in 1991 had sought inspection by the Archaeological Survey of India. This survey by the ASI was stayed by the HC. But the HC refused to interfere in the appointment of an advocate commissioner for a local survey of the mosque. The Anjuman then moved the Supreme Court challenging the HC's decision not to stay the ongoing survey.