A district court in Varanasi, hearing the Gyanvapi Mosque dispute as per the directions of the Supreme Court, said on Monday that it would decide on Tuesday which to consider and hear first — either the report of the commission that conducted a video survey of the mosque premises or the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee’s plea challenging the maintainability of the suit filed by Hindu plaintiffs.
In response to the civil suit filed by five Hindu women seeking permission to pray at a Hindu shrine behind the western wall of the Gyanvapi mosque premises all year round, the Masjid Committee has argued that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, specifically bars their suit and thus disqualifies it. They have relied on Order 7 Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure to make this argument.
The committee on Monday argued that their prayer should be heard first in isolation from the suit filed by the plaintiffs while the Hindu plaintiffs argued that the two must be considered together along with the report of the video survey conducted under orders of the civil judge who was earlier hearing the case.
