Hearing On PIL Demanding Sealing Of Gyanvapi, Stopping Entry Of Non-Hindus At Allahabad HC On August 8

Prayagraj, August 5 (TNA) The Varanasi district court will hold a hearing on a public interest litigation (POIL) seeking to seal the Gyanvapi complex and stop the entry of non-Hindus on August 8. The PIL also demands that Hindu symbols found in the Gyanvapi campus should be ordered to be preserved. ASI started a survey of the complex on Friday amid tight security.

This petition was filed in the High Court on behalf of Rakhi Singh and others on Wednesday. A division bench of Chief Justice Pritinkar Diwakar and Justice Ashutosh Srivastava will hear on this. It has also been demanded from the court that such arrangements should be made so that the work of ASI survey in Gyanvapi is not affected.

The petitioners have filed their PIL through their advocate through the Registry Department of the Allahabad High Court. It said that the centuries-old ruins of the Shri Adi Vishweshwar Temple (the present Gyanvapi campus) in Varanasi have to be saved. It has been claimed that there used to be a grand temple at the disputed site (Settlement Plot No. 9130 Ward and Dashashwamedh Varanasi), where Lord Shiva himself installed the Jyotirlinga.

In 1669, the Muslim ruler Aurangzeb is believed to have destroyed this temple. It is stated that after the destruction of the said temple, the Muslims unauthorizedly encroached on the temple premises and built a structure, the so-called Gyanvapi Masjid. The petition also states that the original Jyotirlinga is located below this unauthorized structure.

Hindu devotees are not being allowed to have darshan of the Shivling inside the old temple premises. If a person or people forcibly and without authority of law offer prayers within that property or at a particular place, it cannot be called a mosque. Further, the petition has cited some evidence inside the Gyanvapi complex, markings/symbols on the walls and pillars, arguing that these are part of the old Hindu temple and the present structure stands on the plinth and base of the mosque.