Muslim side's plea in Supreme Court tomorrow: Will court stop survey?
India Today
The mosque’s management committee - Anjuman-e-Intezamia - had moved the Supreme Court last week seeking a stay on the survey as well as on the proceedings at the Varanasi civil court.
Even as the report of the three-day survey of the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque premises is expected to be submitted before the Varanasi civil court tomorrow, the hearing of the plea filed by the Muslim side in the Supreme Court assumes significance.
The mosque’s management committee - Anjuman-e-Intezamia - had moved the Supreme Court last week seeking a stay on the survey as well as on the proceedings at the Varanasi civil court.
While the survey and videography proceedings have been completed, the Muslim side is hopeful of a favourable order - a stay on the proceedings and not make the survey and its report public.
The plea argued that the fresh suits filed in 2021 citing the “right to Worship” were “barred by the 1991 Places of Worship Act” and were an attempt to revive the dispute which had been put to rest by this law.
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According to this argument, the 1991 Act had created vested rights and status quo in the Kashi temple-mosque issue and the Places of Worship Act made it clear that “the religious character of a place of worship existing on the 15th day of August, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day.” The only exception to this law had been granted to the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi.
The plea argued that allowing the “right to worship” in the mosque would “change the religious character” of the Gyanvapi Mosque.
