Hindu worship in Gyanvapi cellar to be continued as Allahabad HC dismisses plea of Muslim side. 

Allahabad HC dismisses plea challenging Varanasi court order to allow puja in southern cellar of Gyanvapi Mosque.

The Varanasi court on January 31 had ruled that the Hindu side can offer prayers in the southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque – the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’.

Upendra Bharti | HENB | Prayagraj  | Feb 26, 2024:: The Allahabad high court on Monday dismissed the Gyanvapi Mosque committee’s appeal challenging the Varanasi district court’s decision to offer prayers in a cellar in the Gyanvapi mosque complex. Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal of the Allahabad HC pronounced the judgment.

“After going through the entire records of the case and after considering arguments of the parties concerned, the court did not find any ground to interfere in the judgment passed by the district judge dated 17.01.2024 appointing DM, Varanasi as receiver of the property as well as the order dated 31.01.2024 by which the district court had permitted Puja in the Tehkhana,” Justice Agarwal said while pronouncing its verdict.

Not only that the HC categorically opined that the former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh Govt’s move in 1993 to stop Hindu worship rituals in one of the cellars of Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi was ‘illegal’. In its observation, the high court said that the worship rituals were stopped by “illegal action of State without there being any order in writing”.

Hailing the verdict, Advocate Prabhash said that it is a “big victory of the Sanatana Dharma”. “The judge dismissed the pleas that the Muslim side had filed against the District Judge’s order…It means that the puja will continue as it is. District Magistrate will continue as the Receiver of the ‘Tehkhana’…They (Muslim side) can go for a review of the decision. Puja will continue,” he told news agency ANI.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, who is also representing the Hindu side, said, “Today, the Allahabad High Court has dismissed the first appeal from orders of Anjuman Intezamia which was directed against the order of 17th and 31st January and the effect of the order is that the ongoing puja in the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’ of Gyanvapi complex will continue. If the Anjuman Intezamia comes to the Supreme Court, we will file our caveat before the top court,” he said.

The Varanasi court on January 31 had ruled that the Hindu side can offer prayers in the southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque – the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’. The court had also directed the district magistrate to make arrangements for ‘puja’ and a ‘pujari’ nominated by Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust.

Following this, the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, filed a plea before the Allahabad high court on February 1, challenging the Varanasi court’s decision. This came shortly after the Supreme Court refused to urgently hear the mosque committee’s plea.

Read also: Move to stop Hindu rituals in Gyanvapi cellar in 1993 ‘illegal’, says High Court.

Notably, the mosque has four ‘tahkhanas’ (cellars) in the basement, of which one is still in the possession of the Vyas family, who used to live there.

However, according to the mosque committee, the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’ was under their possession as being a part of the mosque premises, and that the Vyas family or anyone else does not have any right to worship inside the Tehkhana.

Meanwhile, the Hindu side claimed that the Vyas family conducted religious ceremonies in the basement until 1993, but they had to discontinue it in compliance with a directive from the state government.

Earlier, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi tried to incite a communal complex by giving a call not to surrender any mosque to Hindus including Gyanvapi. He also condemned the Varanasi court’s decision to allow Hindu devotees to offer prayers inside the mosque complex a “violation of the Places of Worship Act (1991)”. But the ASI survey categorically mentioned a pre-existed Hindu Temple beneath the Gyanvapi Complex and Hindu worship was performed in Gyanvapi celler Vyas ka Tehkhana till December 1993. The worship in the cellar done by the Vyas family was stopped by Mulayam Singh Yadav in December 1993 after he became Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister after Kalyan Singh’s resignation from UP CM’s post after 6th December 1992.

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__Inputs from HT, NDTV,  Times Now & India Today..