A court in Varanasi today agreed to hear a petition by five Hindu women seeking the right to worship inside the Gyanvapi mosque located next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple. The five women want permission to perform Hindu rituals in a part of the mosque complex, saying a Hindu temple once stood on the site. Muslim petitioners had urged the court to throw out the petition.
Here are the Highlights on Gyanvapi Case Hearing:
Gyanvapi Case: 5 Big Quotes From The Varanasi Court VerdictA court today agreed to hear a group of Hindu women who want year-long access to pray inside the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple. The judge looked at 3 Acts and said none bar the case of the Hindu women.
The five women want permission to perform Hindu rituals in a part of the mosque complex, saying a Hindu temple once stood on the site. Muslim petitioners had urged the court to throw out the petition
The Gyanvapi mosque case is maintainable and the pleas filed by five Hindu women seeking the right to worship in the mosque will be heard, a court in Varanasi said today.
#Gyanvapi Case | "We think this decision will come from the Supreme Court": Mohammad Tauheed, lawyer representing the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, caretaker of the mosque
- NDTV (@ndtv) September 12, 2022
NDTV's Saurabh Shukla reports pic.twitter.com/3NlwZh9AV4
#UttarPradesh | Police conduct flag march in Lucknow ahead of the judgment in the Gyanvapi case
- NDTV (@ndtv) September 12, 2022
"An important judgment is about to come today. We did flag march to create a sense of security among people": Lucknow Police Commissioner, SB Shiradkar | reported by news agency ANI pic.twitter.com/DP4zPIoliF
Prohibitory orders have been clamped in the Varanasi commissionerate area and officers have been asked to interact with religious leaders in their respective areas to ensure that peace is maintained, according to Police Commissioner A Satish Ganesh. To maintain law and order, the entire city has been divided into sectors which have been allocated police force as required, he said, adding directives for flag march and foot march in sensitive areas have also been issued. Checking has been intensified in the district's border areas, hotels and guest houses, while an eye is being also kept on social media, the police officer said.
Advocate Vishnu Shanker Jain, representing the five Hindu women who filed the case pertaining to the Gyanvapi mosque, hopes the Supreme Court rules in their favour. The Places Of Worship Act, 1991 was cited by mosque committee and we put our arguments in the court scientifically, he said. We are saying that Vyas ji was being worshiped in the basement of the Gyanvapi mosque till 1993, Mr Jain contended, adding that their case is "very strong". If we win the case today, we will demand carbon dating to be done by conducting further survey of the pond used for "Wazoo", he said.
In May, the Supreme Court assigned the Gyanvapi case to the Varanasi district judge's court, shifting it from a lower court where it was being heard till then. A month before the Supreme Court's intervention in the case, the Varanasi civil court had ordered the filming of the Gyanvapi mosque, based on the petition by the Hindu women who claim there are idols of Hindu Gods and goddesses in the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
