Allahabad HC Scraps Muslim Side’s Pleas Challenging Civil Suit Seeking Restoration of Temple at Gyanvapi Mosque site

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday rejected all petitions by the mosque committee challenging a civil suit that seeks restoration of a temple at the Gyanvapi mosque site.

Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said the suit filed in 1991 before a Varanasi court is maintainable and not barred by the Places of Religious Worship Act, 1991.

The High Court directed the Varanasi court hearing the civil suit, to complete the hearing of the matter within six months.

The high court was hearing five petitions – three from the Gyanvapi mosque committee and two from the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board. Three of these petitions challenged the maintainability of a suit filed before the Varanasi court in 1991. The 1991 suit, filed on behalf of deity Adi Vishveswar Virajman, had argued that the Gyanvapi dispute pre-dated Independence and will not come under the Places of Worship Act, which ensures the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship.

The mosque committee had challenged this suit. The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee and UP Sunni Central Waqf Board had argued that the 1991 suit is prohibited by the Places of Worship Act (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, which restricts altering the character of a religious place as it existed on August 15, 1947.

In 2021, a group of Hindu women approached the court of law seeking permission to worship deities in the Gyanvapi mosque complex adjacent to the Kashi Viswanath temple in Varanasi. A lower court directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a video survey of the complex.