Sunni Waqf Board Moves High Court Over Trial Court's Varanasi Mosque Order

The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board has moved an urgent petition before the Allahabad High Court in the Kashi Vishwanath Mandi-Gyanvapi Masjid case in which the trial court at Varanasi allowed an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) study of the mosque on April 8.

Sunni Central Waqf Board's standing counsel Puneet Kumar Gupta argued that the trial court passed the order illegally and without its jurisdiction as the matter is in the high court and Justice Prakash Pandia reserved its order on March 15 this year.

"We moved the Allahabad High Court today against the judgment of the lower court and filed a petition," Gupta, a permanent advocate of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, said.

"Since Justice Prakash Padiya of the Allahabad High Court reserved the judgment on March 15, 2021, how can the lower court hear the matter and pass the order?" he asked.

Earlier on Monday, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, management committee of the Gyanvapi mosque moved an application before the Allahabad High Court in the case against the April 8 order of the trial court at Varanasi.

Counsel for the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, SFA Naqvi prayed for stay of operation of the April 8 order of the Varanasi court contending that the Allahabad High Court had reserved its judgment on the maintainability of the suit pending in the Varanasi court, which is hearing the contentions of the opposite party (the Temple trust).

On April 8, the Varanasi court allowed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) study of the Gyanvapi Mosque adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.

The court ordered an archaeological survey of a centuries-old mosque complex abutting the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple, saying the exercise was required to decide on pleas that allege the mosque was built by Mughal emperors after partially demolishing a Hindu shrine.

The suit was filed in 1991 seeking restoration of the ancient temple at the site where the Gyanvapi Mosque currently stands.

On March 15, the Allahabad High Court reserved its judgment in various pleas, which had challenged the maintainability of the 1991 suit before the Varanasi trial court, seeking restoration of an ancient temple at the site where the Gyanvapi Mosque at Varanasi now stands.