The Supreme Court is set to consider on Monday a petition from the Gyanvapi mosque management committee challenging a ruling by the Allahabad High Court that upheld a lower court’s decision allowing Hindu prayers in the mosque’s southern cellar.
The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, responsible for managing the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, filed the petition against the High Court’s decision on February 26.
The High Court dismissed the committee’s plea challenging a district court order from January 31 that permitted Hindu worship in the cellar.
In its ruling on February 26, the High Court declared the Uttar Pradesh government’s 1993 prohibition of worship rituals inside the “Vyas Tehkhana” as “unlawful.” It rejected appeals from the mosque management committee contesting a Varanasi district judge’s order from January 17 appointing the district magistrate as the receiver of the “Vyas Tehkhana” and the subsequent order from January 31 allowing ‘puja’ to be conducted there.
The High Court directed the continuation of worship activities in the “Vyas Tehkhana,” situated adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
According to a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India, the Gyanvapi mosque was constructed during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb atop the remnants of a Hindu temple.
On January 31, the district court ruled that a Hindu priest could perform prayers before idols in the mosque’s southern cellar.
Currently, worship is being conducted by a Hindu priest appointed by the Kashi Vishwanath temple trust and petitioner Shailendra Kumar Pathak, whose maternal grandfather, Somnath Vyas, also led prayers in the cellar until December 1993.
Pathak claimed that worship was discontinued during the tenure of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
During the trial court proceedings, the Muslim side contested the petitioner’s narrative, refuting the presence of idols in the cellar and challenging the petitioner’s assertion of control over the basement during British rule.
