The Allahabad High Court will pronounce its verdict in the Gyanvapi Masjid and Vishweshwar Temple dispute case on Tuesday. On December 8, the court had reserved its order after hearing all the parties. During the hearing, questions were also raised regarding the maintainability of the civil suit. Reference was also made to the order passed by Allahabad High Court. A division bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Aggarwal was hearing the petition filed by Sunni Central Waqf Board and Anjumne Arrangements Masjid.
On behalf of both the petitioners, the maintainability of the civil suit filed in the District Court of Varanasi in 1991 and the demand for conducting an ASI survey of the Gyanvapi complex has been challenged.
During the hearing of the case, questions were raised on the exploitability of the civil suit by the mosque side and arguments were given that it is prohibited by the Places of Worship Act-1991 and Order 7 and Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure. At the same time, it was said from the Hindu side that this Act is not applicable in this case.
Senior Supreme Court advocate CS Vaidyanathan, advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi and Ajay Kumar Singh presented the side and senior advocate SFA Naqvi and Puneet Gupta argued on behalf of the mosque side. It was said that despite the stay order from the High Court, the District Court of Varanasi should not have passed the order for the survey. Now under that order the survey of Gyanvapi complex has been done. No need for repeat survey.
It was argued from the Hindu side that if Rakhi Singh withdraws this suit, then there will be trouble. Therefore, a survey should be conducted in this case also. It was also argued that except for the part of the premises that has been surveyed under Rakhi Singh’s case, the rest should be surveyed.
