The court-mandated filming was carried out at the Gyanvapi mosque on May 14, 15 and 16
Varanasi:
The court of Varanasi’s seniormost judge will begin hearing the Gyanvapi Mosque matter today.
Here are the top 10 updates on this big story
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The court of district judge A K Vishevesh had on Tuesday decided to hear the mosque committee’s plea first, challenging the maintainability of a petition filed by five Hindu women who have requested access to the Gyanvapi mosque complex, claiming there are idols of gods and goddesses inside the mosque.
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The district judge had also directed the two sides to file objections to the report of court-mandated filming inside the mosque complex within a week.
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The mosque committee says that filming at the mosque violates a 1991 law that prevents the alteration of the character of any place of worship in the country.
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The Supreme Court on Friday said it was moving the Gyanvapi case to a “senior and experienced judge” in view of the “complexities” and “sensitivity” of the issue.
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The Supreme Court also asked the district judge to decide on priority whether the survey at the Gyanvapi mosque and the petition that led to the inspection was ‘maintainable’ or not.
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The top court also said that its earlier interim order of May 17 directing protection of the area where the “Shivling” was purportedly found, and allowing Muslims to offer namaz , would remain in operation pending the disposal of the mosque committee’s plea, and “thereafter for a period of eight weeks so as to enable any party which is aggrieved by the order of the District Judge to pursue its rights and remedies in accordance with the law.”
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A separate petition seeking a ban on the entry of Muslims to the Gyanvapi Mosque complex was on Wednesday transferred from the court of a civil judge to a fast-track court in Varanasi for hearing on May 30.
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Early last week, lawyers representing Hindu petitioners claimed that a ‘Shivling’ was found during the videography survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
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The claim was disputed by the mosque committee members who said it was part of the water fountain mechanism in the wazookhana reservoir, used by devotees to perform ritual ablutions before offering namaz. The district court had then ordered the sealing of the ‘wazookhana’.
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The court-mandated filming was carried out at the Gyanvapi mosque on May 14, 15 and 16, and the report was submitted to a Varanasi court on May 19.
