Court orders archaeological survey of Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque premises

In a significant decision, a court in Varanasi, about 300 kilometres from here, on Thursday ordered an archaeological survey at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque premises.

The order of the senior division fast track court came on a petition by Vijay Shankar Rastogi, who had contended that the entire premises belonged to the Kashi Vishwanath and that the Gyanvapi Mosque was only a part of the Temple. The petition had been filed in 1991.

Civil Judge Ashutosh Tewari, who had reserved his orders on the petition last week, directed the ASI to form a five-member team and study the entire premises. He also said in his order that the expenses incurred on the survey would be borne by the government.

Rastogi had sought the court's direction for resolving the issue through a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), claiming that the Mosque had been constructed after demolishing the Temple.

He had also contended that the Kashi Vishwanath Temple had been built over 2000 years back. The Temple had been demolished by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the petition claimed.

Rastogi had also cited the example of ASI excavation to resolve the dispute of ownership in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid Title Suits.

The Muslim side had pleaded that the situation, as it was on August 15, 1947, should be allowed to continue.

The Sunni Central Waqf Board, which is the opposite party in the matter, said that it would challenge the decision in the higher court.

The premises had been a bone of contention between the two communities for the past several decades but there was a renewed clamour to ''take back'' the Kashi Vishwanath Temple premises by the saffron outfits after the favourable decision of the apex court in the Ram Temple case.

The Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti (ABSS) had earlier asked the Muslims to ''hand over'' the Kashi Vishwanath Temple land in Varanasi on which, according to them, the Gyanvapi Mosque currently existed and had threatened to launch an agitation to 'liberate' the same if it did not happen. ''Give the Hindus whatever belongs to them else we will take it the way we have taken Ayodhya,'' a senior member of the Samiti had said.

Some saffron leaders had even threatened to demolish, what they termed the 'blots' on the rich history of Hinduism and must be 'removed' without delay.

A district court in Mathura was also hearing a civil suit claiming ownership of the entire land on which the Srikrishna Janmabhoomi was situated and seeking removal of the Sahi Idgah Mosque.