NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Days after a Varanasi court allowed Hindu devotees to offer prayer in one of the four cellars in the Gyanvapi mosque, the court on Tuesday admitted another plea seeking to conduct archaeological survey in the remaining cellars. The case has been posted to February 15.
Lawyers of Anjum Intezamiya Mosque committee said they would file objections to the same. The petitioner, Rakhi Singh, who is plaintiff no. 1 in the pending Shringar Gauri worshipping suit of 2022 at the Varanasi court, maintained that the survey of the remaining cellars was necessary to ascertain the religious character of the property in question.
A court in Varanasi on January 31 allowed puja to be conducted inside the ‘Vyas ka tehkhana,’ a cellar under the Gyanvapi mosque. Within hours, the Varanasi district administration ensured its compliance, and puja is being performed inside the cellar since then. Anjum Intezamia Masjid Committee, which runs and manages the Gyanvapi mosque, has appealed against the order in Allahabad High Court.
(Manas Dasgupta)