Allahabad: In a major relief to the Hindu side, the Allahabad High Court has dismissed the plea challenging the Varanasi Court order to allow puja (worship) in Vyas Tehkhana, southern cell of the Gyanvapi mosque. The court allowed the Hindu side to continue offering pray at the complex which has been dispute with the Muslim side. Dismissing the mosque committee’s petition, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said that Hindu Prayers in the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’ will continue.
In January last, the Varanasi court had allowed prayers in the site by Hindu Paksha and was challenged by the opposite paksha. Following the district court’s ruling, the site was opened during the same night and prayers was performed by the priests under close vigil of district administration.
The puja petition to resume puja at the Vyas Tehkhana was filed by Shailendra Kumar Pathak, the head priest of Acharya Ved Vyas Peeth temple, who claimed that his grandfather Somnath Vyas, also a priest at the district court. It was being told to the district court that prayer was used to perform at the site till end of 1993.
Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, a body looks after the affairs of the mosque, moved the Allahabad High Court against the Varanasi Court’s order to allow puja (prayers) in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque. The Masjid Committee first moved to the Supreme Court where it was told to go to the High Court. The Committee, through the petition, had maintained that the disputed complex was in its possession as being a part of the mosque premises. Its stand was that other side has no right to offer prayer or do worship at the place without any legitimate right.
The mosque has four ‘tehkhanas’ (cellars) in the basement, and one of them is still with the Vyas family. An Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report survey, ordered by the district court, in connection with a related case, had earlier suggested that the mosque was constructed during Aurangzeb’s rule over the remains of a Hindu temple.
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