Gyanvapi mosque: Varanasi court orders survey, contentious spot exempted

A court in Varanasi on Friday directed the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

The '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 related to the spot where Muslims perform ritual ablutions.

A throng of people outside the court received the news with slogans of "Har Har Mahadev". The order by the court of A K Vishvesh upheld the petition of a group of Hindus seeking a survey to determine if the Mughal-era mosque was built at the site of an earlier Hindu temple.

The court fixed August 4 as the next date of hearing, according to government counsel Rajesh Mishra.

The court had on July 14 reserved its order after hearing both Hindu and Muslim sides.

The petition filed by the Hindu group had sought direction to the ASI to survey the complex.

The mosque management's counsel Mohammed Tauhid Khan said it will challenge the order. "It is not acceptable and we will move to a higher court against it. This survey could cause damage to the mosque," he said.

The Muslim side filed its objection to the Hindu group's petition in May.

Vishnu Shankar Jain, the counsel for the Hindu side, had earlier argued that the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque dispute can be resolved only by an archaeological investigation of the entire mosque complex.

He had said that the situation will become clear after examining the three domes of the Gyanvapi complex, the western wall of the complex and the entire complex in a modern way.

After an Allahabad High Court order, the Varanasi district court had on May 16 agreed to hear a plea for an ASI survey.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered the protection of the area around the claimed 'shivling', found when a local court ordered a video survey of the complex.

The mosque management has maintained that the structure was part of the water fountain mechanism at the 'wazukhana', the reservoir where devotees performed ablutions before offering namaz.