On Friday, Varanasi District Judge AK Vishwesha ordered an ASI survey of the Gyanvapi complex on May 16, 2023, on an application filed by four Hindu women. The order, however, excluded the bathing pond area of the complex, which has been sealed on the orders of the top court. Citing the Allahabad High Court’s stay on the survey of the Gyanvapi complex in September 2022, the mosque committee – Anjuman Intezamia Masajid (AIM) – filed an online Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court, seeking an urgent hearing in the matter. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud is likely to hear the petition on Monday. The petition also cited the Supreme Court’s May 19 stay on the Allahabad High Court’s order for a scientific survey of the alleged ‘Shivling’ found in the bathing tank of the mosque during the court-directed survey in May 2022.
AIM joint secretary SM Yasin told TOI on Sunday, “An online SLP was filed before the apex court on the night of July 21 following which it was to be heard in the CJI court on Monday. The SLP has termed the district court’s order in contempt of the Supreme Court’s stay order on the demand for carbon dating of the fountain (which the Hindu petitioners claim is a ‘Shivling’) in the bathing tank of the mosque.’
The Allahabad HC had allowed a scientific survey of the alleged ‘Shivling’ on May 12, 2023, but the order was stayed by the apex court on May 19. Earlier, in September 2022, the Allahabad HC had stayed another order of the Varanasi Civil Judge, passed in April 2022, for ASI survey of Gyanvapi premises, Yasin said, “Since the stay orders of the SC and HC are still in force, how can the district judge order an ASI survey of Gyanvapi premises?”