A team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has started a "scientific survey" of Varanasi's Gyanvapi mosque today even as the mosque management committee filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Varanasi district court's order allowing the inspection.
The survey - which began at 7 am - will extend to all areas except the sealed "wuzukhana" where a structure that Hindu litigants claimed to be a 'Shivling' - a relic of Lord Shiva -- was found during an earlier survey in 2022. The mosque management committee is boycotting the survey being carried out by the ASI. "None of the members of the Muslim side will be present during the survey," Syed Mohammad, Joint Secretary of the Masjid Committee, said.
The ASI has to submit the report to the district court by August 4.
The inspection is being carried out following an order by the Varanasi district court on Friday. The order was passed based on a plea by four women worshippers who claim the Gyanvapi mosque was built after razing an ancient Hindu temple and that a scientific study is needed to bring out the full facts.
While passing the order, the court held that the scientific investigation is "necessary" for the "true facts" to come out.
The same petitioners had filed the 2021 petition in the Gyanvapi matter, asking for year-long access to the m "Shringar Gauri" shrine inside the mosque.
Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, who also represents Hindu side in the Gyanvapi case, claimed the court's decision is a turning point in the case. "Our application for the ASI survey has been accepted. It is a turning point in the case," he said.
The Supreme Court will hear the petition filed by the mosque management committee against the Varanasi district court's order at 10:30 am.
In May this year, the Supreme Court had deferred the "scientific survey", including carbon dating, of the "Shivling" that was said to have been found at the Gyanvapi mosque complex during a videographic survey conducted last year.
The top court's order had come days after Allahabad High Court directed the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the structure that Hindu petitioners claimed is a "Shivling". The Gyanvapi mosque authorities had said the structure is a part of a fountain in the "wazukhana", where people perform ablutions before offering namaz.
In September last year, the Varanasi district judge had dismissed a challenge by the mosque committee that argued that the case by the women has no legal standing.
Located in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, the Gyanvapi mosque is one of the several mosques the right wing believes were built on the ruins of Hindu temples.
It was one of the three temple-mosque rows, besides Ayodhya and Mathura, which the BJP raised in the 1980s and 1990s.