The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee has moved the Allahabad Allahabad High Court challenging the Varanasi District Court's order allowing a survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque complex (except for Wuzukhana) by the Archeological Survey of India. As per IANS, the committee takes care of 22 mosques including the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi. This comes a day after the Supreme Court put a stay on the survey till July 26 and asked the Muslim side to approach the High Court.


The apex Court halted the "detailed scientific survey" till 5 pm on July 26, saying "some breathing time" needed to be granted to appeal against the order. Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma said the survey work has been stopped in view of the top court's order. 


Meanwhile, the four petitioners who filed the case in Varanasi court have also filed a caveat in the Allahabad High Court requesting to not pass an order on the Muslim side’s plea without hearing the other side. Two caveats have been filed on behalf of Lakshmi Devi, Sita Sahu, Manju Vyas and Rekha Pathak.  


Now that a caveat has been filed, the court will have to hear the other side before passing an order on the Muslim side’s plea. The petition is likely to be put before the court at 2 PM 


In the plea, the Masjid Committee has presented various arguments. It said that the district judge gave the decision outside his jurisdiction. They argued that the Supreme Court, while hearing the Gyanvapi case on May 20 last year, had empowered the District Judge to hear only on the maintainability of the civil suit under Order 7 Rule 11. 


"Till now, when the maintainability of the suit has not been decided, then how can the court order the survey?" The plea said. They have made the Allahabad High Court's stay on an old order to get the survey done by the Archaeological Survey of India a basis in the case. 


They further said that the ASI is not a party in Rakhi Singh's case in which the district judge gave its verdict on July 21 adding that the manner in which the ASI started the survey process only a few hours later raises questions about its intention. 


On Monday morning, a 30-member team of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) entered the Gyanvapi complex to carry out a scientific survey in accordance with court orders to determine if the mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple was built upon a temple.


Besides the ASI team, which entered the complex around 7 am, the lawyers of all the Hindu petitioners to the legal dispute are also present at the spot, Madan Mohan Yadav, one of the counsel, said.


Late on Sunday evening, District Magistrate (DM) S Rajalingam had said the ASI team had reached Varanasi and the survey proceedings inside the Gyanvapi mosque campus would begin from 7 am on Monday.


Varanasi Police Commissioner Ashok Mutha Jain and the DM held a meeting with both the Hindu and Muslim sides to the dispute on Sunday night to share information about the survey with them.


However, citing the Supreme Court hearing scheduled for Monday on the order for the survey, the lawyers of the Muslim side demanded that the date for the exercise be postponed, Yadav said. He added that the Muslim side has boycotted the survey.


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