Gyanvapi case: Allahabad HC rejects Muslim side plea; Hindus can pray in mosque cellar

The Allahabad High Court on Monday (February 26) dismissed the Gyanvapi mosque management committee's appeals challenging the Varanasi district judge's January 17 order that appointed the district magistrate as the receiver of the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’ or southern cellar of the mosque and January 31 order by which he allowed "puja" to be performed there.

The high court said worship in the cellar will continue.

Dismissing both the appeals, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said, "After going through the entire records of the case and considering the arguments of the parties concerned, the court did not find any ground to interfere in the judgment passed by the district judge on January 17, appointing the Varanasi district magistrate as the receiver of the property, as well as the order dated January 31 by which the district court permitted puja in the tehkhana."

On January 31, the Varanasi district court ruled that Hindu prayers could be offered in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque. The mosque committee approached the Supreme Court on February 2 against the ruling, but the apex court refused to hear the plea and asked it to appeal to the Allahabad High Court. The committee filed a plea in the high court the same day.

The Allahabad High Court listened to both parties on February 15, and reserved its order.

The original petitioner before the Varanasi district court was Shailendra Kumar Pathak, who claimed that his maternal grandfather Somnath Vyas had offered prayers in the mosque until December 1993. Pathak petitioned the court to allow him, as a hereditary 'pujari', to resume offering pooja in one of the four tekhanas (cellars) which is still with the Vyas family.

The Varanasi district court gave its ruling after an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report suggested that the mosque was constructed over the remains of a Hindu temple during Emperor Aurangzeb’s rule. The mosque committee, however, refuted Pathak’s version, and said there were no idols in the cellar, and hence it was clear that prayers were not offered there till 1993.