PIL in Allahabad HC seeks sealing of Gyanvapi mosque premises

A group of right-wing activists, along with one of the Hindu petitioners in the Gyanvyapi mosque case, have filed a PIL in the Allahabad HC, seeking a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to seal the entire mosque premises

A group of right-wing activists, along with one of the Hindu petitioners in the Gyanvyapi mosque case, have filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Allahabad High Court, seeking a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to seal the entire mosque premises so that “non-Hindu/non-Sanatani” people cannot damage any religious signs or symbols of the Hindu community present inside the mosque.

On Thursday, the High Court is set to issue its verdict on a survey of the Gyanvyapi mosque, to be conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). After the Varanasi district court ordered the survey last month, it was challenged in both the Supreme Court and the High Court by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee which governs the mosque. The ASI survey, ordered on July 21, was initially stayed by the Supreme Court. The Allahabad HC too had stayed the survey, till August 3.

Also read: Explained | Gyanvapi and the Places of Worship Act

The PIL filed on August 1 was moved by Rakhi Singh — one of the plaintiffs in the 2022 suit seeking Hindu worship rights in the Gyanvapi mosque, which is pending before the Varanasi court — as well as Jitendra Singh Visen, chief of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh, Siddha Nath Singh, Suraj Singh, and Anisha Shahi. The PIL seeks the “protection of the centuries old remaining of Old Sri Adi Vishweshwar temple in Kashi (Varanasi) & for protection of Shivlingam of Sri Adi Vishweshwar Virazmaan and other visible and invisible deities in the precinct of the old Sri Adi Vishweshwar temple”.

The PIL also mentions a journal and some literature, which claim that there was a temple at the disputed site, which was allegedly destroyed in the year 1669, during the reign of Aurangzeb. “The Muslims unauthorisedly encroached into the temple premises and put a super structure which they call the ‘alleged Gyanwapi Mosque’ despite the fact that the property was vesting in the deity and the same was not and could not be a Waqf Property,” the PIL said.

It added that the original Jyotirlinga still lies beneath the superstructure which was illegally and unauthorisedly raised by Muslims. In the PIL, the petitioners claim that they have a right to worship the deities inside the premises of the complex and the disputed property.

Advocate Saurabh Tiwari, representing Rakhi Singh, told The Hindu that the PIL seeks a direction from the court to seal the mosque premises and to restrain the entry of “non-Hindus” in the old temple area till the disposal of the suits pending in the district court in Varanasi.