Gyanvapi mosque survey: Varanasi court allows litigants access to ASI report

A Varanasi court on January 24 ordered that the Archaeological Survey of India’s survey report in the Gyanvapi mosque complex be made available to the litigants in the case.

District Judge A K Vishvesh asked both the Hindu and Muslim parties to keep the report with them and not make it public.

The survey was done last year on the orders of the district court to determine if the mosque, located near Kashi Vishwanath temple, was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

The ASI submitted its survey report in the Fast Track Court of Justice Prashant Singh after which the matter came in the district judge court who ordered to provide hard copies of the report to the parties.

The ASI on January 3 pleaded the court to not make its report public for at least four more weeks, citing the December 19 judgment of the Allahabad High Court.

(With PTI inputs)