The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has claimed that The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act,1991, which mandates that the character of all religious places of worship should be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947, does not apply to the Gyanvapi Mosque dispute in Varanasi.
The Hindu right-wing outfit claims that there has been no change in the status of the religious structure since 1947 and that Hindus have always performed puja at the site. VHP international working president Alok Kumar said that the site where the “Shivling” was found was a temple and had been so even in 1947. He referred to it as the Gyanvapi Mandir.
Civil Judge, senior division, Ravi Kumar Diwakar on Monday ordered that a portion of the Gyanvapi Mosque premises be sealed after lawyers representing five Hindu plaintiffs claimed that a “Shivling” was found in the ablution water tank of the mosque on the concluding day of a court commissioner-led video inspection. The caretakers of the mosque, however, asserted that the object was a part of a stone fountain.
