Gyanvapi Case: Supreme Court refuses to stop ongoing puja in mosque cellar.

SC refuses to stay order allowing puja in cellar of Gyanvapi mosque complex.

The high court had in February dismissed the committee’s plea in which it had challenged the district court’s January 31 order allowing Hindus to offer prayers in the cellar. However, SC retains status quo; Hindu worship to continue in cellar while Muslims offer namaaz in mosque and courtyard. The court ordered that the status quo would not be disturbed by either contesting parties.

Sambuddha Gupta | HENB | New Delhi | April 1, 2024:: In a balancing act, he Supreme Court on Monday managed the contentious Gyanvapi Temple-Mosque row, by allowing a chosen Hindu priest to continue to offer worship inside the cellar, also known as ‘Vyas ke tehkhana’ in the Gyanvapi premises while Muslims used the mosque and the surrounding courtyard for performing namaaz as usual.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud comprising with Justice Justices J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra found it “appropriate” to order status quo in order to “enable both communities to offer religious worship”, in the present situation.

“This way namaaz is offered on the premises of the mosque. The tehkhana is safeguarded. The arrangement would be maintained between now and the trial,” Chief Justice Chandrachud remarked orally.

The court issued notice on a plea by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee challenging the high court order dismissing its appeal against trial court order and allowed  Hindu prayers in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque as permitted by the concerned court of law.

The high court had in February dismissed the committee’s plea, in which it had challenged the district court’s January 31 order allowing Hindus to offer prayers in the cellar.

While dismissing the plea, the court had said the move of the state government in 1993 restraining puja in the southern cellar (also know as Vyas ke Tehkhana) of the mosque complex, adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, was “illegal”.

Six days after it handed litigants copies of an Archaeological Survey of India’s report which stated that “there existed a Hindu temple prior to the construction” of the Gyanvapi mosque, the Varanasi district court on January 31 directed that a priest be allowed to perform puja in the southern cellar of the mosque complex.

The Hindu side Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain told PTI,“The honourable Supreme Court heard the matter at length. The matter was filed by Anjuman Intezamia before the Supreme Court, challenging the order of district judge of Varanasi, dated January 31, as well as the order of the Allahabad High Court affirming the order of the district judge, wherein both the courts below had directed that prayers in the Vyas Tehkhana must continue, and upheld that order. The Supreme Court has issued notice in the matter and has directed Shailendra Kumar Vyas, the Vyas family successor, to file its reply before April 30, and the court has directed that the status quo, which is existing as on today, should remain, which means that the Vyas family and Kashi Vishwanath Trust will continue its prayers in the Tehkhana.”

…

__Inputs from PTI and IE.