Gyanvapi Mosque: Committee Moves Allahabad Hc Against Order Allowing Hindus To Perform Puja

Vyas Tehkhana Opened In Haste By Administration, Says Muslim Side

The Muslim side has asserted that the administration opened the Vyas Tehkana in haste to deprive the Muslim side of any remedy. The Gyanvapi Masjid committee has now moved the Allahabad high court challenging the Varanasi district court’s order permitting the Hindus to perform puja in Vyas Tehkana or the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi structure. This was reported by a legal media news source. Within hours of the order, prayers were performed for the first time in more than 30 years in the southern cellar of the masjid.

The Muslim side said yesterday they would approach the Allahabad high court as the Varanasi District Court order overlooked certain things. The Advocate Commissioner report of 2022, ASI’s report, the decision of 1937 all were in favour of the Muslim side. On the other hand, the Hindu side did not place any evidence that prayers were held before 1993, the Muslim side said.

Puja At Vyas Tahkhana Of Gyanvapi Mosque

1. Lawyers representing the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee have also moved the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking an urgent hearing, The Supreme Court registrar conveyed to them that the CJI asked them to approach the high court.
2. “There is no reason for the administration to undertake this task in hot haste in the dead of the night as the order passed by the Trial Court had already given them one week to make the necessary arrangements. The obvious reason for such unseemly haste is that the administration in collusion with the plaintiffs is trying to foreclose any attempt by the Mosque Managing Committee to avail of their remedies against the said order by presenting them with a fait accompli,” the Muslim side said.
3. The Varanasi court on Wednesday allowed Hindu devotees to offer prayers inside the ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’ area inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex. This was a historical judgment.
4. The court has asked the district administration to make the necessary arrangements in the next seven days.
5. Hours after at night, the tahkhana was opened after more than 30 years and prayers were offered. Notably, the Gyanvapi mosque has four ‘tahkhanas’ (cellars) in the basement. Vyas Tahkhana is the one that apparently belonged to the Vyas family
6. After cleaning the cellar, an ‘aarti’ of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh was performed, locals said.
7. At around 9.30 pm on Wednesday, members of the Kashi-Vishwanath temple trust were called. Barricades around the Nandi statue facing the mosque’s ‘wazukhana’ were removed.
8. The ASI survey suggested that the Gyanvapi mosque was constructed during Aurangzeb’s rule over the remains of a Hindu temple.
9. Hindu side lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain posted the timings of daily aarti at the tahkhana. Prayers will be offered five times, he said. The timings are 3.30am, 12pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10.30pm.
10. Several videos of the Hindu side pasting mandir stickers on a signboard of Gyanvapi mosque appeared on social media, as well as those of prayers being offered for the first time after decades.