New Delhi: The district court in Varanasi will resume hearing on the Gyanvapi mosque case today. Earlier on May 30, the court had heard arguments on the maintainability of a plea by five Hindu women who sought permission for daily worship of the Shringar Gauri Sthal located inside the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque complex. The matter was then posted for further hearing on July 4 by District judge AK Vishvesh.
The hearing will now resume today where the Muslim side will put arguments against the maintainability of the plea, said V Jain, advocate from the Hindus’ side, reported news agency ANI. “According to them,the case is not maintainable,but we've said that it's maintainable...Our demand to grant worship there is legally valid,” he said.
The Muslim side had back then too, on May 30 hearing had argued against the maintainability of the plea, news agency PTI had reported.
The Muslim side has argued that the plea is not maintainable as the Places of Worship Act 1991 prohibits conversion of any place of worship and mandates the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, as per the PTI report.
A lower court had ordered a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque, after a plea was filed, and the Hindu side has claimed that a ‘Shivling’ was found during the exercise.
On May 20, the Supreme Court had transferred the case from a civil judge (senior division) to a district judge, saying looking at the "complexities" and "sensitivity" of the issue, it is better if a senior judicial officer with an experience of over 25-30 years handles this case.