Gyanvapi case: Varanasi court says Hindu petitioners' plea to worship maintainable; timeline of events

A Varanasi district court on Monday upheld the maintainability of a petition by a group of Hindu women to pray inside the mosque complex in the communally sensitive Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri case. 

A petition from 5 Hindu women had sought permission for daily worship of Hindu deities whose idols are claimed to have been found on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque. Saying that the plea is maintainable, the Varanasi court said that the matter will now be heard on September 22.

The Muslim petitioners in the matter are “likely to approach the Allahabad High Court in appeal," petitioner Sohan Lal Arya was quoted as saying. 

Timeline of the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri case:

1998: Allahabad High Court approached by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee saying that the temple-mosque land dispute could not be decided by a civil court as it was not permissible by the law. Stay to the proceedings granted by the High Court for 22 years.

2019: The case was revived when a plea was filed on behalf of Swayambhu Jyotirlinga Bhagwan Vishweshwar as the deity`s next friend in the Varanasi court demanding a survey by ASI in the disputed area.

2020: Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee opposed the petition seeking ASI survey of the entire Gyanvapi complex.

2020: The petitioner approached the lower court for the resumption of the hearing of the 1991 petition.

March 2021: The Places of Worship Act 1991 was taken up by a Supreme Court bench headed by then former Chief Justice S.A. Bobde. The petitioner was Ashwani Upadhyay.

August 2021: Five female Hindu devotees filed a petition in the Varanasi Court seeking to worship deities Hanuman, Nandi, and Shringar Gauri, inside the Gyanvapi complex.

September 2021: Allahabad High Court said that the court should wait for further judgement in the already proceeding cases of the matter.

April 2022: Based on the petition filed in August 2021, the Varanasi district court appointed a court commissioner and videography survey of the complex. Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee challenged it in the Allahabad High court, which upheld the lower court order. The Masjid Committee also filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court.

May 6, 2022: The videographic survey of the complex began.

May 12, 2022: The court appointed senior advocate Vishal Singh to supervise the survey. He was appointed as special court commissioner. The court directed them to report details of the survey by May 17.

May 14-19, 2022: The survey was resumed again and was conducted for two days. All the survey findings were submitted in a report to the court.

May 20, 2022: The case proceedings were transferred to a district judge by the Supreme Court.

May 26, 2022: The district court began hearing the maintainability petition of the case.

June 21, 2022: Varanasi civil judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who had ordered the video survey of Gyanvapi mosque, is transferred to Bareilly.

July 11, 2022: The Hindu petitioners in the Gyanvapi case decide to form a new trust, Shri AdiMahadev Kashi Dharmalaya Mukti Nyas.

July 18, 2022: The Supreme Court agreed to list a plea seeking `puja`, `darshan`, ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey and carbon dating by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) of the Shivling purportedly discovered in the Gyanvapi mosque`s ablution area during a court-ordered survey.

August 24, 2022: Varanasi Court reserved its order till September 12. The time was given to both parties to complete their arguments.

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(With inputs from IANS)