The Gyanvapi Mosque is located next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple in Varanasi. (File)
Lucknow:
Varanasi’s veteran magistrates court is expected to decide today whether a case brought by five Hindu women seeking the right to worship inside the city’s Gyanvapi mosque, located next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple, is it “maintainable” or not.
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District Judge AK Vishvesha is likely to order an order on whether the women’s case – which led to an investigation inside the Gyanvapi mosque – will continue to be heard or whether it will end any any legal status.
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In May, the Supreme Court assigned the case to the Varanasi district court, transferring it from a lower court, where it is being heard until then.
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The Supreme Court ordered: “Keeping the complexity and sensitivity of the matter intact, the civil case before a civil judge in Varanasi will be heard before a senior and experienced judicial official of UP Judiciary.”
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A month before the Supreme Court intervened in the case, the Varanasi civil court ordered the filming of the Gyanvapi mosque to be filmed, based on a petition from Hindu women claiming that there was an idol of the deities. Hindu gods and goddesses in the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
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A report of the filming at the mosque was later submitted to the Varanasi court in a sealed cover, but the Hindu petitioners were controversial just hours later.
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The report said a “Shivling” was found in a pond in the mosque complex used for the “Wazoo” or purification ritual before Muslim prayers. The judge adjudicating the case at the time ordered the pond to be sealed.
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Filming inside this centuries-old mosque was challenged by the Gyanvapi mosque committee in the Supreme Court.
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The petitioners say the filming goes against the Places of Worship Act of 1991, which has maintained the religious status of any place of worship since August 15, 1947.
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“Such petitions and the sealing of mosques will lead to public mischief and discord in the community, which will affect mosques across the country,” the committee said. the mosque has argued.
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The mosques commission made similar arguments before the Varanasi district magistrate’s court in the “maintainable” case, while lawyers for the Hindu petitioners claimed the law did not. ban their case and they can determine in court that the mosque facility is indeed a temple like the one above. Independence Day.
