Varanasi: Supreme Court on Friday ordered to transfer trial court proceedings in the Gyanvapi mosque case to the court of a district judge in Varanasi, Bar and Bench reported. “Having regard to the sensitivity of this civil suit case, this case before the civil judge Varanasi shall stand transferred and be heard by senior and experienced judicial officer of the UP judicial services,” the bench said.
A Varanasi trial court court had been hearing a petition filed by five women, who have sought permission to offer daily prayers and observe other Hindu rituals at the back of the western wall of the Gyanvapi mosque. They have claimed that an image of the Hindu deity Shringar Gauri exists at the site.
The Supreme Court is hearing a petition filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, the caretakers of the mosque, challenging the Varanasi court’s order to conduct a survey of the mosque. The Hindu petitioners had requested the court that before passing a verdict, the religious character of Gyanvapi should be decided upon. The local court will hear the matter on July 2nd week.
Monday, the local court had directed district officials to seal a part of the mosque where a shivling was claimed to have been found. However, the lawyer of the mosque management committee claimed that the object is not a shivling, but a part of a stone fountain in the mosque’s wazu khana, or ablution tank. However, SC directed to protect the spot where the said shivling was found and Muslims should not be restricted from offering prayers at the mosque.