Varanasi court postpones to Jan 3 opening of ASI survey report of Gyanvapi complex

VARANASI: A Varanasi district court on Thursday postponed the opening of an ASI survey report of the Gyanvapi mosque complex and sharing of its copies with the petitioners concerned to January 3.

Advocate Madan Mohan Yadav, who is representing the Hindu petitioners, said: “District Judge A K Vishvesha put off the matter of opening the sealed survey report and providing its copies to the parties to January 3 on the plea of Muslim side advocate Akhlaq Ahmed.”

Akhlaq Ahmed told the court that lawyers were busy with Bar Council elections slated for Friday and were not attending to court work.

The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) submitted the survey report in a sealed cover to the district court on December 18. The survey was ordered by the court after the petitioners claimed the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing temple.

The court had fixed December 21 to open the sealed report and shared its copies with the advocates. The Muslim side had on that day appealed to the court to not make the survey report public. The Hindu side had sought that the report be made public.

The ASI carried out the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi premises, located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, to determine whether the mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

The survey was carried out following the district court’s July 21 order that mentioned the need to survey beneath the mosque’s domes, the cellars and the western wall.

The court had asked the ASI to ensure that there was no damage to the structure standing on the disputed land.