The Supreme Court on Wednesday corrected its July 24 order by which it had inadvertently disposed of an appeal by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee questioning the maintainability of a suit by four Hindu women in a Varanasi court seeking worship rights inside the mosque, in the Gyanvapi case.
Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee manages the Gyanvapi mosque located adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra corrected the order, and deleted the paragraph, after senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi pointed to the error in the July 24 order.
Senior advocate Ahmadi appeared for the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee managing the Gyanvapi mosque.
Huzefa Ahmadi in a mentioning before the Chief Justice bench pointed to the mistake saying that July 24 order while put on hold the Varanasi district court’s order directing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake the survey including excavation of the mosque premises, had disposed of the main plea questioning the maintainability of a suit by four Hindus women.
The top court while halting the survey by ASI, had disposed of an application by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee seeking stay of the Varanasi district court’s order directing ASI survey.
Senior advocate Ahmadi told the bench, “The appeal against Order 7 Rule 11 has been disposed of though not argued. We have only pressed the ASI survey point and the matter is before the Allahabad High Court and it can be argued there that our appeal has been dismissed.”
On July 24 while putting on hold the ASI survey till July 26, 05.00 pm, the top court had inadvertently, in its order, had disposed of the main case relating to the maintainability of a suit by four Hindus women in a Varanasi court seeking worship rights inside the mosque.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was called to appear, after a mentioning by senior advocate Ahmadi, told the bench that he has no objection to the correction of the order.
Solicitor General Mehta appeared both for the Uttar Pradesh government and the ASI.
In the main plea, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee had approached the top court seeking dismissal of the lawsuit of the by the four Hindu women in the Varanasi district court under Order 7 Rule 11(c) of the Civil Procedure Code for filing it on a paper which has not been duly “stamped and authorised”.
On July 21, Varanasi district judge A.K. Vishvesha ordered the ASI survey of Gyanvapi complex on an application moved by four Hindu women on May 16, 2023.
The order of the district judge, however, excluded the ablution pond area of the complex, which has been sealed on the order of the top court.
On May 12, 2023, the Allahabad High Court had allowed the scientific survey of this purported “shivling” but the top court stayed it on May 19.
The High Court on May 12 set aside the Varanasi District judge order which had rejected the application for a scientific survey and carbon dating of the “Shivling” on October 14, 2022.
The High Court had directed the Varanasi District judge to proceed, in accordance with law, on the application by the Hindu worshippers for conducting a scientific probe of the “Shivling”.
Petitioners Laxmi Devi and three others had filed a plea in the High Court, challenging the lower court order.
During the survey, a structure — claimed to be a “Shivling” by the Hindu side and a “fountain” by the Muslim side — was found in the mosque premises on May 16 , 2022, during a court-mandated survey of the mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Petitioners Laxmi Devi and three others had filed a plea in the High Court, challenging the lower court order.