The Varanasi District Judge on Wednesday directed the District Administration to make appropriate arrangements with 7 days for Hindus to conduct worshipping rituals inside one of the sealed cellars/basement/tahkhana inside the existing Gyanvapi mosque complex.
Worship at this spot was stopped twenty one years ago.
“District Magistrate, Varanasi / receiver is directed to get puja, raga-blog performed of the idols located inside that the basement situated on the south side of the building which is the suit property, by the priest named by the Kashi Vishwanath Trust Board and the plaintiff. For this purpose, make proper arrangements of iron fencing etc. within 7 days,” read the order.
According to Live Law, the matter relates to ‘Somnath Vyas’ tehkhana inside Gyanvapi Mosque premises. Until 1993, the Vyas family conducted religious ceremonies in the basement. However, in compliance with a directive from the state government, the religious practices were discontinued.
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.
