SC to hear Gyanvapi committee’s plea against Hindu prayers in cellar today

The Supreme Court of India will hear the Gyanvapi mosque management committee's plea against an Allahabad High Court decision upholding a lower court's order allowing Hindu prayers in the southern cellar of the mosque today, April 1. 

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud along and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will hear the petition filed by Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, challenging the HC's February 26 decision. The committee manages the affairs of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi. 

The committee had contested the district court's January 31 ruling permitting Hindus to offer prayers in the cellar. However, the high court had rejected the committee's argument.

Dismissing the plea on February 26, the high court had observed that the Uttar Pradesh government's 1993 decision was “illegal”. The state government had ordered to stop the worship rituals inside the "Vyas Tehkhana" -- located at the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque. 

It had declared that the "illegal action of the state without there being any order in writing" had stopped the worship rituals, and it had dismissed two appeals from the mosque management committee that had challenged the orders of the Varanasi district judge. 

These orders were issued on January 17 (which designated the district magistrate as the recipient of the "Vyas Tehkhana") and January 31 (in which the judge permitted 'puja' to be performed there).

It had ordered that worship would continue in the "Vyas Tehkhana" of the mosque, which stands adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey was carried out on the court's orders suggesting that the Gyanvapi mosque was built over the ruins of a Hindu temple during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

On January 31, the district court ruled that a Hindu priest could perform prayers before the idols in the southern cellar of the mosque. 

Currently, a Hindu priest nominated by the Kashi Vishwanath temple is leading the prayers. Shailendra Kumar Pathak, the petitioner, stated that his maternal grandfather Somnath Vyas, who was also a priest, led prayers in the basement until December 1993.

He had stated that following the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, puja was discontinued when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Uttar Pradesh CM. 

The Muslim side had also countered the petitioner's claim that the basement was under his grandfather's control. The petitioner had claimed that his family had control of the cellar even during British rule.

(With inputs from agencies)