The Supreme Court in the case observed and has directed that the order passed by the Varanasi District Court on July 21 for the ASI survey of the mosque should not be enforced till 5 PM on July 26, 2023, with regards to the Gyanvapi Mosque dispute at Varanasi.
The court in its order stated that the order passed allowed some “breathing time” to the Gyanvapi Masjid committee to approach the Allahabad High Court challenging the order of the District Court wherein it was considering that it was passed on a Friday evening and clarified that it has not gone into the merits of the matter. The said court asked the Masjid Committee to approach the High Court tomorrow itself and requested the High Court Chief Justice to allow a hearing before the interim order expires on July 26, 2023.
The bench comprising of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra in the case observed and mentioned an urgent mentioning of the plea made by the Gyanvapi Mosque committee (Committee of Management, Anjuman Intezamia Masjid).
The bench in the case observed and has also taken the note of a statement made
on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) that it is not planning to carry out any excavation of the Gyanvapi site at least for a week, though the Varanasi District Court had allowed such excavation to determine if the 16th century mosque was built over a pre-existing temple.
It has also been informed by the Court about the ASI’s stance when the Gyanvapi Masjid Committee sought a stay of the order of the Varanasi Court’s.
