Varanasi: The District Court Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh is on Wednesday scheduled to hear a plea by the Archaeological Survey of India, which sought three more weeks to submit the survey report of the Gyanvapi mosque the previous day. The ASI, which was on Tuesday expected to submit the survey report after five extensions by the court, sought a sixth extension while citing technical reasons.
Citing that there were many updates in the report technically, the lawyer representing the Archaeological Survey of India sought an additional time of 3 weeks from the court, on which the hearing could not be held yesterday. The hearing is scheduled to be held today in the court of District Judge Ajay Krishna Vishwesh.
Also read: ASI seeks three more weeks from Varanasi court to submit Gyanvapi survey report
Tuesday was the sixth time when the ASI sought an extension to submit the report of the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque. The survey was conducted by the ASI to ascertain whether the mosque was built at the site of an existing temple as claimed by the Hindu plaintiffs. Earlier on November 17, the court had directed the ASI to hand over the report of Gyanvapi survey in a sealed envelope.
But the ASI team had then also moved an application a day before and asked for additional time of 15 days. But the court granted a time of 10 days instead of 15 to submit the report and had ordered to submit the report by 28th November. ASI lawyer had argued that the report was ready, it was just taking time to prepare the report after considering the technical aspects and the radar system used during the conduct of the survey.
An expert team from Hyderabad has used Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for possible underground findings. The Hyderabad team has submitted a report running on 120 pages to the ASI. The survey by the ASI began in ending July after the court, on July 21, directed it to conduct the survey.
