The court asked the Varanasi court to complete hearing in one of these civil suits, filed in 1991, within six months.
Gyanvapi mosque. (Photo: IANS)
The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed petitions of the Sunni Central Waqf Board and Anjuman Intejamia Masjid Committee over the ownership dispute between Gyanvapi Masjid and Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi.
The court asked the Varanasi court to complete hearing in one of these civil suits, filed in 1991, within six months.
The high court was hearing five petitions — three from the Gyanvapi mosque committee and two from the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board. Three of these petitions challenged the maintainability of a suit filed before the Varanasi court in 1991.
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“The petitions filed by the Muslim side were rejected. The High Court directed the lower court to give the final verdict in the case within six months,” lawyer Vijay Shankar Rastogi said.
The 1991 suit, filed before the Varanasi court on behalf of the deity Adi Vishveswar Virajman, had sought control of the disputed premises and permission for worship there.
Challenging this suit, the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee and UP Sunni Central Waqf Board had argued that it is not maintainable under the Places of Worship Act (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, which restricts altering the character of religious places as it existed on August 15, 1947.
The petitioners of the 1991 suit had argued that the Gyanvapi dispute pre-dated Independence and would not come under the Places of Worship Act.
Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal had on December 8 reserved his judgment after hearing the counsels of the petitioners and the respondent.
The court, in its verdict, said the mosque compound can have either a Muslim character or a Hindu character, and this cannot be decided at the stage of framing issues. “The suit affects two major communities of the country… We direct the trial court to expeditiously decide the suit in six months,” it said.
The suit pending before the Varanasi court seeks the restoration of an ancient temple at the disputed site where the mosque is now located. It argues that the mosque is part of the temple.
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