Gyanvapi Survey: The scientific survey of other places will start from seven o’clock on Monday morning, except for the seal storage located in the Gyanvapi campus of Varanasi. It was sealed after a meeting of District Magistrate S Rajalingam and advocates at the camp office of Police Commissioner Mutha Ashok Jain late on Sunday night. ASI team from New Delhi has reached Varanasi for this.
In the Gyanvapi case, the Varanasi court has given permission for the survey by ASI. With the completion of the hearing in this matter on July 14, the District Judge’s Court had reserved the verdict. After this, on July 21, the court gave its verdict of seven pages. The court has ordered the ASI to submit the report by 4th August. In this survey, the ASI team will survey the entire campus at 11 points. Only the area of Waju Khana is not included in this, because it has been sealed after the order of the court.
A copy of the court order will be handed over
Meanwhile, a copy of the district judge’s court order related to the survey of other places, except the Seal Wajukhane located in the Gyanvapi premises, will be handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on behalf of the Hindu side on Monday. Along with this, a copy of the court order will also be made available to other defendants in the case, Uttar Pradesh Government, Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust, Police Commissioner and District Magistrate.
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Plaintiff-defendant and advocate will be present during the survey
Hindu side’s advocate Sudhir Tripathi told that the outline of the survey has been decided in the meeting with the District Magistrate and the ASI team. During the survey, apart from the team of ASI, the plaintiffs, defendants and their advocates will also be present in Gyanvapi. We will cooperate with the police and the administration in every way so that the work of the survey is completed in a peaceful manner.
He said that during the survey of Advocate Commissioner last year, there was unnecessary controversy regarding photos and videos. This time there has been a demand from the District Magistrate that government photographers and videographers should be appointed during the survey. This will not lead to any dispute in any way.
Petition filed in Supreme Court against survey from ASI
Meanwhile, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee has filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against the order of the district judge’s court regarding the survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) of the entire complex, except the Seal Wajukhana of Gyanvapi. The Masjid Committee says that the order of the Supreme Court has been defied by ordering the survey from the ASI. The petition can be heard on Monday. The committee hopes that the Supreme Court will ban this survey.
Syed Mohammad Yasin, joint secretary of the Anjuman Intejamia Masjid Committee, said that on May 12, the Allahabad High Court had ordered carbon dating and scientific survey of the fountain located in the Vajukhana of the Gyanvapi Masjid. The Supreme Court had stayed the order of the Allahabad High Court. Now the district court has ordered the ASI to survey the area adjacent to it.
Important developments in the Gyanvapi case
The first case was filed in the Varanasi court in 1991 in the Kashi Vishwanath Gyanvapi case. In this, permission was sought for worship in the Gyanvapi campus. Somnath Vyas, Ramrang Sharma and Harihar Pandey are the plaintiffs on behalf of the ancient idol Swayambhu Lord Vishweshwar.
A few months after the case, in September 1991, the Central Government enacted the Place of Worship Act. This law says that the place of worship of any religion that came into existence before 15 August 1947 cannot be converted into a place of worship of any other religion. If someone tries to do so, he can be imprisoned for one to three years and fined.
The case of Ayodhya was in the court at that time, so it was kept separate from this law. But in the Gyanvapi case, citing the same law, the mosque committee challenged the petition in the High Court. In 1993, the Allahabad High Court had ordered to maintain the status quo by imposing a stay.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ordered that the validity of the stay order in any case will be only for six months. After that the order will not be effective. After this order, in 2019, the hearing in this case started again in the Varanasi court.
In 2021, the Civil Judge Senior Division Fast Track Court of Varanasi approved the archaeological survey of Gyanvapi Masjid. A commission was appointed in the order and this commission was ordered to videograph Shringar Gauri on 6 and 7 May in the presence of both the parties. By May 10, the court had asked for complete information regarding this.
On May 6, the survey was done on the first day itself, but on May 7, the Muslim side started protesting against it. The matter reached the court. On May 12, a hearing was held on the petition of the Muslim side. The court rejected the demand to replace the commissioner and ordered to complete the survey work by May 17 and submit the report.
The court said that where locks are installed, get the locks broken. If someone tries to create obstruction, legal action should be taken against him. But the survey work should be completed in any case.
On May 14, the Supreme Court refused to hear the petition of the Muslim side immediately. In the petition, a demand was made to ban the survey in Gyanvapi Masjid. Refusing to maintain the status quo, the top court had said that we cannot issue orders without seeing the papers. Now the matter will be heard on May 17.
From May 14 itself, the survey work of Gyanvapi started again. All the closed rooms till the well were investigated. Video and photography of this entire process was also done.
The survey work was completed on 16 May. The Hindu side claimed that Baba was found in the well. Along with this, many evidences have been found of being a Hindu site. On the other hand, the Muslim side said that nothing was found during the survey.
A fresh petition was filed on 24 May. In this, there was a demand to ban Muslims from offering Namaz in Gyanvapi premises, to hand over the premises to Hindus and to allow regular worship of Shivling allegedly found in the premises during the survey.
On May 25, District Judge AK Vishweera shifted the petition to the fast track court.
On October 15, the arguments of both the sides were completed in the court. The date of 27 October Thursday was fixed for the order.
By October 18, both the parties were asked to file written arguments.
The order could not come on November 8 because the judge was on leave.
On November 14, the court gave the date of November 17 to pronounce the verdict in this case. On November 17, the court gave its important order in this matter.
(youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btYImnEPrFw)
