Lagatar24 Desk
Varanasi, Nov 14: The legality of a petition calling for the exclusion of Muslims from the grounds of the Gyanvapi Mosque is to be decided by a Varanasi court.
The mosque, which is next to the well-known Kashi Vishwanath Temple, has been the subject of a protracted court battle. Five women petitioned the court last year to get permission to offer daily prayers to Hindu idols on the mosque’s exterior walls and other “visible and invisible deities within the old temple complex.” This issue gained attention. Hindu devotees can now visit the region once a year to pray.
A fast track court is hearing a separate petition on the matter while the district judge of Varanasi is hearing the main case.
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The fast-track court had previously stated that it would decide today whether the petition calling for a ban on Muslim immigration was valid. The Vishwa Vaidik Sanatan Sangh petition also requests that Hindus be given access to the property and be given permission to worship the alleged “Shivling” there.
A “Shivling,” according to Hindu petitioners, was allegedly discovered in the mosque grounds during a videography survey mandated by a Varanasi court
The “Shivling,” according to the Hindu petitioners’ attorney Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, emerged from a pond used for “wazoo,” or ablution rituals before namaz. The mosque committee denied the allegation and insisted that the building was actually a “fountain.”
The committee also filed a motion claiming that the petition filed by the Hindu side lacked legal standing. However, the senior judge’s court in Varanasi rejected this challenge.
The Varanasi court’s decision to permit videography on the property has been contested by the Muslim side at the Allahabad High Court.
The alleged location of the “Shivling” was ordered to be sealed up by the Supreme Court in May. The sealing order was extended by the court last week.
