The Supreme Court will hear the appeals by the Gyanvapi management committee and Anjuman Intezamia Masjid against an Allahabad high court order on the lawsuits for the restoration of a temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque exists in Varanasi. Anjuman Intezamia Masjid filed the plea in the supreme court.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is all set to hear an appeal of the Gyanvapi management committee
Gyanvapi management committee
Gyanvapi management committee restoration” of a temple at the site where the mosque exists in Varanasi.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that they will tag this with the main case.
The plea in the top court was filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, the committee that manages the affairs of the
Gyanvapi mosque. On December 19 last year, the Allahabad high court had dismissed pleas challenging the maintainability of a 1991 suit seeking the “restoration” of a temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque stands.
The HC had said that the “religious character” of a disputed place can only be decided by the court.
The Allahabad High Court has rejected five petitions related to the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi.
The petitions, filed by the mosque committee and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, sought permission for a survey of the mosque premises and challenged the right to worship in the mosque.
The high court ruled that the suit filed before the district court is not barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The court clarified that the Places of Worship Act, 1991 does not bar these civil suits and emphasized the national importance of the dispute.
It stated that the determination of the religious character of the complex should be addressed through judicial proceedings. The court directed the trial court to decide the suit expeditiously and permitted an ASI survey of the complex. The original suit filed in 1991 demanded restoration of the land and removal of the mosque, alleging it was constructed after demolishing a temple.
The Act prohibits the conversion of the religious character of a place from what it was on August 15, 1947.
