Varanasi district magistrate has said that the Gyanvapi mosque survey will resume tomorrow.
The Archaeological Survey of India will continue its survey to determine if the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi was built on a temple, the Allahabad High Court ruled today. The mosque committee had challenged the survey of the mosque, which is next to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi.
The High Court said the district court order is just and proper, and no interference is warranted. It also said the survey was necessary for justice.
Varanasi district magistrate has said that the survey will resume tomorrow.
The ASI survey had been ordered by a Varanasi court on July 21, based on a petition by four women who claimed it was the only way to determine whether the landmark mosque was built after razing a Hindu temple.
The survey started on July 24, but it was stayed within hours by the Supreme Court after the mosque committee approached it. The mosque committee had argued that the structure is over a thousand years old and any digging might destabilise it, leading to its collapse. The committee had also argued that any such survey is in violation of existing laws around religious places.
Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, who represented the Hindu side, told reporters that the high court said the district court's order on the ASI survey will become effective immediately.
"This is a very important decision by the high court. The argument by the Anjuman Intezamia that the survey will affect the structure (of the mosque) has been rejected by the court, which has dismissed its petition," he said.
The mosque's 'wazukhana', where a structure claimed by Hindu litigants to be a 'shivling' exists, will not be part of the survey -- following an earlier Supreme Court order protecting that spot in the complex.
Hindu activists claim that a temple existed earlier at the site and was demolished in the 17th century on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.