STATE TIMES NEWS
Prayagraj (UP): The Allahabad High Court on Thursday reserved till August 3 its verdict on a plea against a Varanasi district court order directing the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a survey to determine if the Gyanvapi mosque was built upon a temple.
The court of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker also ordered that the stay on the ASI survey will continue till August 3. The high court was hearing the plea filed by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, which manages the mosque.
Appearing for the state of Uttar Pradesh, Advocate General Ajai Mishra said the state government is there to maintain law and order and that it has no concern with the survey.
The counsel for the Hindu side, Vishnu Shankar Jain, submitted that the district court had ordered for the ASI survey to come to a “logical conclusion regarding existence of deities and nature and age of the structure”. He also presented in the court some photographs of the western side of the mosque showing the existence of Hindu idols. During the hearing, SFA Naqvi, who represented the mosque committee, submitted that the matter regarding maintainability of a suit is pending before the Supreme Court and if the apex court later rules that the suit is not maintainable, then the entire exercise will be futile.
Thus, a survey should be done after the top court’s decision on maintainability of the suit, Naqvi argued.
When the hearing started in the case, ASI Additional Director Alok Tripathi assured the court that the ASI is not going to do any digging at the structure.
