Hindu side files new SC plea on Gyanvapi

Four Hindu women moved the Supreme Court on Monday seeking the excavation and scientific survey of a sealed section of the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi, four days after an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report concluded that a large Hindu temple existed before the construction of the mosque in a boost for the Hindu petitioners in the decades-old case.

- Utkarsh Anand

The area in question holds a disputed structure that Hindus say is a Shivling, a claim rejected by Muslim side which says it is part of a ritual ablution tank.

Filing two separate applications, the Hindu women plaintiffs pressed that the very purpose of the ASI survey conducted on the orders of the Varanasi district judge will be frustrated if the area, which has remained sealed under the direction of the top court since May 2022, is not inspected by ASI for completeness of the exercise.

"It is relevant to mention that such excavation/scientific prospection is required to find out the original structure of Shivlingam and its associated features," stated the pleas.

"We will file an application in the Supreme Court, seeking permission to operate the fountain in the Wazukhana (ritual ablution tank) of Gyanvapi Mosque," said SM Yasin, joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages Gyanvapi.

"We will not oppose the scientific survey in the hauz (tank) in the Wazukhana." While the first application requested the top court to lift the restraint over scientific survey of the structure found in the ablution tank by an order of May 19, 2023, the second sought a specific direction to ASI to undertake the survey of the sealed area and submit a report within the time as may be dictated by the apex court.

"The core question involved in the matter is whether the object found by advocate commissioner on May 16, 2022, is Shivlingam or a fountain, which can be proved only on the basis of a scientific investigation. It is submitted that ASI is the premier authority which can conduct scientific survey of the entire sealed area including Shivlingam to establish the truth in the matter," stated pleas filed jointly by Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, Manju Vyas and Rekha Pathak.