HC to hear on Wednesday mosque committee plea challenging lower court verdict in Gyanvapi case

The Allahabad High Court will hear on Wednesday the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee’s petition challenging the Varanasi district court’s September 12 order rejecting its application against the maintainability of a plea seeking daily worship of Hindu deities whose idols are located on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi Masjid.

Justice J J Munir passed the order on a joint request from the counsels for the parties concerned.

Fixing October 19 as the date of hearing, the high court directed that a photocopy of all papers on the basis of which the district judge had disposed of the application under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) has to be sent to this court by Wednesday.

The photo copies have to be verified by the district judge, the high court said.

On September 12, the Varanasi district court said it will continue to hear a petition by some Hindu women seeking daily worship of Hindu deities whose idols are located on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi Masjid, dismissing the mosque committee’s argument that the case is not maintainable.

District Judge A K Vishvesh rejected the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee’s petition questioning the maintainability of the case, which has reignited the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi Masjid dispute.

The mosque committee’s dismissed plea had cited the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 to make its case.

The Varanasi district court said the 1991 Act does not apply in this case — where the devotees are seeking permission for daily worship of the idols they say are already installed there. Already, they are allowed to offer prayers there once a year, their lawyers had argued. The mosque committee has now filed a revision petition in the high court against the district court order.