Gyanvapi row: Varanasi Court grants four more weeks to ASI to complete survey

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India]: Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi court on Friday granted four weeks’ additional time to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to complete the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

As per the order, ASI has been granted time till October 6, 2023, to complete the survey and submit the report.

Earlier in August this year, Allahabad High Court allowed the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi.

“Allahabad High Court has said that the ASI survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex will start. Sessions court order is upheld by the High Court,” Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi survey case told reporters.

The Allahabad High Court dismissed Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee’s plea, challenging the ASI survey of the mosque complex, adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi.

The scientific survey of the complex, adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath Temple, excluding ‘wuzukhana’, began on August 4, following the Allahabad High Court’s order, which allowed the ASI to conduct the survey to determine if the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

Though the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee challenged the Allahabad High Court order in the Supreme Court, the top court however declined to stay the scientific survey by the ASI.