Kashish Jain
The Uttar Pradesh Central Sunni Waqf Board filed an application in the Allahabad High Court seeking to restrain proceedings in a Varanasi court that directed the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to “get a comprehensive archaeological physical survey” done of the disputed Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque complex.
The order passed by Fast Track Court Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ashutosh Tiwari had ordered a survey by ASI to “find out whether the religious structure standing at present at the disputed site is a superimposition, alteration or addition or there is a structural overlapping of any kind, with or over, any religious structure”.
The miscellaneous application was filed by the Board as part of a writ petition being heard over the dispute in the Allahabad High Court, which had reserved the order in the matter after arguments in the matter were completed.
Advocate Punit Gupta had said that they filed the plea as the trial court order was “against the legal procedure which bars a court from hearing the issue as the matter is pending before the High Court”.
He also said,
“We have filed a miscellaneous application in the writ petition in which order was reserved on March 15. Our prayer is that the order by the Varanasi trial court judge be stayed till the High Court order in the issue is out,”
“The proceedings in the local court in Varanasi are barred by the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which says that nature of religious places will not be changed from what it was on August 15, 1947.”
Anjuman Intezamia mosque filed a similar application in the Allahabad High Court.
Senior Advocate Syed Farman Ahmad Naqvi said that the “urgent application was filed asking the High Court to stop the Varanasi Trial Court from proceeding in the title suit”. He is representing the mosque in the High Court.