Dismissing a petition challenging a Varanasi court order allowing Hindu parties to conduct puja in the ‘vyas tehkhana’ of the Gyanvapi complex, the Allahabad High Court on Monday allowed the puja to continue. The Varanasi district court had on January 31 ruled that a priest, Shailendra Kumar Pathak, has the right to offer prayers in the southern cellar of the mosque.
Pathak, a hereditary pujari, sought permission to enter the tahkhana and resume pooja, following his grandfather’s prayers until December 1993. One of the cellars in the mosque’s basement still belongs to the Vyas family.
The Varanasi district court’s decision came a day after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) released a report on the mosque complex. The ASI survey, ordered by the same court, suggested the mosque’s construction during Aurangzeb’s rule over the remains of a Hindu temple.
The mosque committee disputed the petitioner’s version, claiming no idols existed in the cellar, refuting the possibility of prayers there until 1993. On February 2, shortly after the Supreme Court rejected their plea against the district court’s order, the committee approached the Allahabad High Court, which reserved its decision after hearing both parties on February 15.