Gyanvapi Mosque: ASI submits scientific survey report before Varanasi court; next hearing on 21 December

The Archaeological Survey of India, or ASI, Monday submitted before Varanasi Court its report on the scientific survey of Gyanvapi mosque premises.

Soon after ASI submitted the report before the Varanasi district Judge AK Vishvesha, a petition was moved by the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages Gyanvapi Mosque seeking information about the report.

The hearing will now take place on 21 December.

"After studying all the things, ASI has submitted its findings in a sealed envelope," Rahul Mishra, ASI Additional Standing Counsel, said.

"Today, the Archaeological Survey of India has filed its report in sealed cover in violation of the Supreme Court judgment of 4 August... We have moved an application before the district court that we must be supplied a copy of the report, and there cannot be a gag order on the media that you cannot talk about this report. You cannot publish about this report, and we will participate in the hearing on 21 December. And if the district court does not pass an order, which is in consonance with the law, we'll file an appeal before the Supreme Court," Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi survey case, said.

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After submitting the report, the Hindu worshippers requested the Court to make the ASI report public and sought directions for the supplying of report copies to all the parties involved.

The ASI conducted a scientific survey of Gyanvapi complex in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, following the 21 July order of the Varanasi District Judge to find out if the mosque was built over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

The Supreme Court of India, on 4 August, refused to stop the ASI from surveying the Gyanvapi Mosque premises, expect the 'Wuzukhana', the place where a 'Shivling' was claimed to have been found last year.

The court had allowed the survey taking on record an undertaking made on behalf of the ASI that no excavation would be done at the site and none of the structures would be damaged too.

On 21 July, the Varanasi Court directed the ASI to conduct a "scientific survey" of the Gyanvapi mosque to find out if it has been built over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

With inputs from agencies