Gyanvapi Row: ASI Survey Will ‘Reopen Wounds Of Past’, Mosque Committee Tells SC

New Delhi: Muslim body Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee told the Supreme Court on Friday that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey at the Gyanvapi mosque In Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi intends to go into history and will ‘reopen wounds of past’.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the mosque management committee, contended before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that the exercise by the ASI is ‘digging into history’, violating the Places of Worship Act and impinging upon fraternity and secularism.

“You can’t oppose every interlocutory order on the same ground and your objections will be decided during the course of the hearing,” said the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

“The ASI survey intends to go into the history as to what happened 500 years ago. It would reopen wounds of the past,” Ahmadi said voicing displeasure over the survey ordered by the Allahabad High Court.

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During the hearing, which is underway, Ahmadi said the survey violates the Places of Worship (special provisions) Act, 1991 which prohibited change of character of religious places as they existed in 1947.

The apex court is hearing a plea by the mosque committee against the Allahabad High Court order permitting an ASI survey at the Gyanvapi mosque.

The high court had on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the Gyanvapi committee challenging a district court order directing the ASI to conduct the survey to determine if the mosque was built upon a pre-existing temple.

Scientific survey of Gyanvapi mosque complex resumes

Earlier in the day, the ASI resumed its scientific survey of the Gyanvapi premises to determine whether the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

The survey, which was boycotted by members of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee, began around 7 am. In view of Friday prayers, the survey was halted for two hours between 12 pm and 2 pm.

Additional security personnel have been deployed by the district authorities to ensure law and order near the complex.

Representatives of the Hindu petitioners in the legal dispute involving the mosque were present inside the complex during the survey.

The Hindu side’s lawyer Madan Mohan Yadav told the news agency PTI that a 43-member ASI team is conducting the survey work.

Yadav said the survey work is likely to continue for five-six days. He added that during this period the plaintiffs of the case Laxmi Singh, Sita Sahu, Rekha Pathak and Manju Vyas along with their lawyers will be present on the spot along with the ASI team.

Rakhi Singh, another litigant in the case, was not present on Friday for the survey. However, her counsel was present.

Syed Mohammad Yasin, secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, told PTI that the lawyers of the Muslim side did not participate in the survey as the decision to conduct the survey has already been challenged in the Supreme Court.

“The High Court has ordered the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi without any demolition. The Anjuman Intazamiya Masjid had appealed against this order in the Supreme Court on Thursday itself, which is to be heard on Friday. We have informed the senior officials in Varanasi about this,” he said.

“Our request was that the survey should be postponed till the order of the apex court. Our advocate from Delhi had also sent a letter to the same effect to the officials here, but after not getting a response, the committee met on Thursday night and decided to abstain from this survey,” he added.

The mosque stands next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.