Varanasi:After the Supreme Court refused to stay the Allahabad High Court order on an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of Varanasi's Gyanvapi mosque, the ASI officials resume their survey at the mosque complex on Saturday. The Muslim side has maintained that the exercise will reopen wounds of the past.
On Friday, the ASI team arrived at the mosque around 6.30 am and they began their survey work at 7 am. The survey was paused at 12 pm for about two hours to ensure that the Friday namaz was not hindered. The ASI wound up its day's work at 5 pm, a lawyer from the Hindu side said.
Government counsel Rajesh Mishra, who too accompanied the team said the ASI took photographs and mapped the complex during the day-long exercise Friday.
Lawyer Madan Mohan Yadav said the ASI team had 43 members. In the morning, the mosque committee lawyers who were permitted to accompany the ASI team in the morning abstained from participating citing the Supreme Court.
SC's no excavation fiat-On Friday, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, directed the ASI not to carry out any invasive act during the survey to find out if the 17the century mosque was built on a Hindu temple. The order effectively ruled out excavations, which could have been conducted on the orders of the Varanasi court which has said "excavations can be conducted if necessary."
The apex Court's nod came amid the resumption of the detailed scientific survey in tune with the Varanasi district court order dated July 21. The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee, which manages the mosque, had challenged the district court's order in the Allahabad High Court. The High Court dismissed the petition on Thursday and the mosque committee moved the Supreme Court.
Survey time extended-The Varanasi court Friday granted the ASI team an additional month to complete the survey, which by the original order should have concluded on Friday. Now, the ASI team has time till September 4 to complete the surveyy.
ASI assurance- In the apex court, the bench took note of an assurance by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ASI and the Uttar Pradesh government. "It is clarified on behalf of the ASI, represented by the solicitor general, that as a matter of fact, the entire survey will be completed without any excavation at the site and without causing any destruction to the structure," the bench said.
ASI survey outcome subject to test of law-The top court said the evidentiary value of the survey by the ASI was open to be tested in the lawsuit and to objections, including cross-examination. Consequently, the report of the ASI, by itself, does not amount to determination of the matters in dispute, it said.
Wounds of past-"Having regard to the nature and ambit of Court-appointed commissioners, we are unable to differ with the view of the High Court..., it said. Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the mosque management committee, argued that the ASI survey violated the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 which prohibited changing the character of religious places as they existed in 1947. "The ASI survey intends to go into history as to what happened 500 years ago. It would reopen wounds of the past," he said. (with PTI inputs)
