As the district court in Varanasi continued hearing the ongoing Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath temple civil dispute, the Muslim side on Wednesday filed an application seeking that advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, one of the lawyers leading the Hindu side, should be barred from appearing for the plaintiffs given his conflict of interest because of his position as Standing Counsel for U.P. government in the Supreme Court.
This came a day after one of the five original plaintiffs in the suits, Rakhi Singh, filed a similar application before district judge A.K. Vishvesha, alleging conflict of interest on the part of Mr. Jain. This application came a month after the split among the Hindu plaintiffs first appeared in May. Ms. Singh’s uncle, Jitender Singh Visen, claiming to hold the power of attorney for her, had announced at the end of May that they would no longer be engaging Mr. Jain, his father and their team in the case.
