Gyanvapi Mosque
The Gyanvapi Mosque is located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
According to historians, it was constructed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1669.
The Gyanvapi mosque shares a boundary wall with the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Issues
The case of Gyanvapi mosque has been in court since 1991, when three persons, including a descendant of the priests of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, filed a suit in the court of the civil judge of Varanasi claiming that Aurangzeb had demolished the temple of Lord Vishweshwar and built a mosque on it so that the land should be returned to them.
On August 18, 2021, in the same court in Varanasi, five women had filed a petition demanding to worship in the temple of Mother Makeup Gauri, accepting which the court constituted a commission to know the present status of the Makeup Gauri Temple.
The entire case is based on the assertion that Hindu deities were being worshipped at the site before and after August 15, 1947.
And that daily worship of these deities was going on till 1990, and that after 1993, it is permitted one day every year.
The plea for a survey and the intent to rake up the question of an earlier structure under the mosque indicate a design to create conditions for seeking an alteration to its status.
Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi — representing the Anjuman Intazamia Masajid committee, which manages the mosque, and had filed the appeal against the Allahabad HC order — said the survey was merely “salami tactics”.
He submitted that the survey was a breach of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, which was enacted to guard fraternity and secularism through protection of the religious character of religious places.
Recently in news
The Supreme Court refused to stop the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from continuing with its “scientific investigation” of the Gyanvapi mosque premises at Varanasi.
Though it asked the expert body to stick true to its assurance to use only “non-invasive methodology” for its survey.
There should not be any excavation on the premises nor any damage to any structure, the court said.
The courts have not dealt with the question why it is necessary to determine the date of pillars and walls and make a list of artefacts, when the main prayer in the suit is for the right to worship Ma Sringar Gauri, Ganesh, Hanuman and other “visible and invisible” deities.
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