Varanasi court asks Gyanvapi committee, others to file reply on Jan 21 on plea seeking worship of 'Shivling'

Fast-track court Judge Mahendra Kumar Pandey, while hearing the plea of Kiran Singh, asked the respondents to file their reply on January 21, District Assistant Government Counsel Sulabh Prakash said.

Varanasi:A fast-track court hearing a plea seeking right to worship purported 'Shivling' in the Gyanvapi complex on Thursday asked the mosque committee, the district administration and the Vishwanath Temple Trust to file their reply on January 21. In November last year, the court had rejected the Gyanvapi Masjid committee's objection to the petition.

Fast-track court Judge Mahendra Kumar Pandey, while hearing the plea of Kiran Singh, asked the respondents to file their reply on January 21, District Assistant Government Counsel Sulabh Prakash said. On May 24 last year, plaintiff Kiran Singh, general secretary of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh, filed the suit in the Varanasi district court, seeking a ban on the entry of Muslims into the Gyanvapi complex, handing over of the complex to the Sanatan Sangh and permission to offer prayers to the 'Shivling' claimed to have been found in the mosque complex.

On May 25, District Judge A K Vishvesh had ordered the transfer of the suit to the fast-track court. The Varanasi district magistrate, the police commissioner, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the affairs of the Gyanvapi mosque, and the Vishwanath Temple Trust have been made respondents in the suit.

On April 26, a lower court (civil judge-senior division) that was earlier hearing a plea moved by a group of women seeking permission for the daily worship of the idols of the Hindu deities on the mosque's outer walls had ordered a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi complex. The Hindu side had claimed that a "Shivling" was found inside the mosque complex during the exercise. However, the Muslim side has maintained that the structure was part of the fountain mechanism at the "wazookhana" reservoir, where devotees carry out ritual ablutions before offering namaz. (PTI)