The Allahabad high court on Thursday ruled that the ASI survey on the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi will continue.
The Muslim side’s plea that the survey may damage the structure has been dismissed by the high court. The survey will be done in the terms of the ASI’s affidavit, Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer for the Hindu side said after the Allahabad high court’s major verdict.
The nod has come for a ‘scientific’ survey of the barricaded area barring the sealed area of the ‘wazukhana’.
On July 21, a Varanasi court directed the ASI to conduct a survey to determine where the mosque was actually built on the site of a temple. The survey began on July 24, but was stalled by the Supreme Court which ordered “some breathing time” to appeal a district court order.
The Gyanvapi case started after a group of women approached the court in Varanasi claiming a temple used to exist earlier. The court ordered a video survey of the complex. During the survey, a controversy arose over a structure which the Hindu side claimed to be a shilling and the mosque management committee said it was part of a fountain in the wazukhana.