Varanasi District Judge: Hearing in Gyanvapi case to begin today

May 22, 2022

The hearing in the Gyanvapi case begins today under the District and Sessions Judge of Varanasi, Justice Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha.

The case involves the claim by the Hindu devotees who have filed a civil suit for getting the Right to worship inside the premises of Gyanvapi Mosque claiming it was a Hindu temple earlier and still has Hindu deities.

On Friday ,Supreme Court bench of Justice D.Y Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice PS Narasimha had passed an order to transfer civil suit in Gyanvapi mosque case from the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) to Varanasi District Judge. The Apex court had instructed that suit should be given the priority before any other matter.

Ten individuals have filed a plaint acting as next friends of deities claiming that the Gyanvapi mosque is an ancient temple residing one of the Jyotirlingam that was destroyed in year 1669 by the then emperor Aurangzeb .They also claim that the temple housed Lord Ganesha and Ma Shringar Gauri which still exist in the premises that is now claimed as property of Gyanvapi mosque.

The advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Pankaj Kumar who were representing the plaintiff said “As per the claim the ancient temple of Lord Adi Vishweshwar was demolished and a construction was raised there in form of Gyanvapi mosque.”

It was submitted by the plaintiff is “That image of Maa Shringar Gauri exists within the property in question at the back side of Gyan Vapi in Ishan Kon (North East Corner). The devotees had been worshipping at this place but in 1990 (Nineteen Ninety) during Ayodhya movement the Government of Uttar Pradesh to appease Muslims, had put some restrictions in the daily puja . Since 1993 (Nineteen Ninety three) the State Government imposed some more hard rules for devotees in worshipping Goddess Shringar Gauri and other subsidiary deities.”

The request by plaintiffs is to have a fundamental right to perform ‘pooja’ within the marked premises where the temple lies.

The plaint stated that as per the Article 25 of Constitution the devotees of Lord Ganesha and Shridhar Gauri should also be allowed to perform puja along with Shiva devotees in the premises. They also said that they have right to perform Pooja ,Dharshan ,Aarti and bhog in the entire area of 5 kos.

The plaintiffs have submitted that for a Hindu, the Pooja cannot gain any spiritual advantage as long as there is no object of worship ,so under the denial of right to religion they want to claim their place of worship.

The pliant further stated that the place does not belong to any Muslim and that any obstacle that was created before 26 January 1950 has become null and void by virtue of Article 13(1) of the Indian constitution.