What is the controversy around Gyanvapi Mosque? All you need to know
India Today
The controversy and legal battle around Gyanvapi Mosque is decades old. Here are the details of how the dispute started.
Gyanvapi Mosque, adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, is currently facing a legal battle. A court in Varanasi has directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to probe the structure of the Gyanvapi Masjid.
Several petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court, Allahabad High Court and Varanasi Court alleging that the mosque was built by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb by demolishing the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in the 16th century.
A petition was filed in the year 1991 in the Varanasi court where the petitioners, local priests, sought permission to worship in the Gyanvapi Mosque area.
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The petitioners said that the Mosque was built on the orders of Aurangzeb by demolishing a part of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple during his reign in the 16th century.
A Varanasi-based lawyer, Vijay Shankar Rastogi, filed a petition in the lower court claiming illegality in the construction of the Gyanvapi Masjid and sought an archaeological survey of the mosque. This came in December 2019 after the Supreme Court verdict in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title dispute of Ayodhya.
The Varanasi court in April 2021 directed the ASI to carry out the survey and submit its report. However, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee that runs the Gyanvapi Mosque contested the petition by Rastogi and also opposed the Varanasi court’s order for survey of the mosque.
