The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the historic Gyanvapi mosque, has moved an application before the Varanasi district judge claiming that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is digging the premises which is against the court’s directions.
The agency is not using the GPR technique to conduct the survey, mosque committee said.
The committee’s application came days after the ASI filed an application in the Varanasi district court seeking further eight weeks’ time to complete its survey of the mosque.
The mosque committee urged the court to not grant any further extension of time to the ASI.
“The ASI is defying the orders of the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court which have particularly asked the agency to conduct a scientific survey of the mosque premises using scientific and GPR method. In its application, the ASI has proposed to do the survey after removing the debris/garbage etc. ASI has not been authorised to conduct survey after cleaning any debris or garbage,” read the mosque committee’s application.
“….collecting the debris by bringing it to another place is a threat to the building of the mosque and it may collapse due to this,” it added.
The court has fixed September 8 as the next date of hearing the ASI’s plea seeking extra time to complete the survey and submit its report.
The ASI is conducting a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque, since August 4, on the orders of the Varansi district court given on July 21, 2023. The aim is to determine if the mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.
The Hindu nationalists have been campaigning that the historic mosque was built on the site of the original Kashi Vishwanath temple, while Muslims maintain that the mosque was built on Waqf premises, and that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 barred changing the character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
 is digging the premises which is against the court’s directions.){kind=link}