As the next hearing in the Gyanvapi Mosque-Kashi Vishwanath Temple dispute draws near, a District Court in Varanasi has now dismissed a plea seeking an FIR against the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee and its members for allegedly trying to erase purported “symbols of Hinduism” within the mosque premises.
District Judge A.K. Vishvesha, while dismissing the revision petition seeking the FIR, said that the petitioner – Jitender Singh Visen – could not produce any specific evidence that pointed to any cognizable offences committed by the masjid panel or its members.
Mr. Singh, who holds the power of attorney to legally represent Rakhi Singh, one of the plaintiffs in the original civil suit, had approached the District Court with a revision petition seeking an FIR in the matter after a lower court had refused to admit the same. Mr. Singh is also the chief of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh (VVSS).
On June 27, Mr. Vishvesha held that the lower court’s observations on the petition were correct and that it had made no error in dismissing it.
The District Court is now set to take up the matter in the main civil suit on July 4, when the Masjid panel is expected to continue its submissions on the maintainability of the Hindu plaintiffs’ suit. Ms. Singh and four other women had approached the court with a suit seeking permission to pray at a Hindu temple adjacent to the mosque premises.
The suit was initially being heard by a civil court, which had ordered a video survey of the mosque premises. The survey report was then leaked in the public domain multiple times in violation of court orders, prompting the plaintiffs to claim the discovery of a “shivling” inside the mosque. The Masjid panel had disputed this saying the structure in question was part of the fountain in the mosque’s wuzu khana.
The Masjid panel had then approached the Supreme Court, challenging the civil court’s order directing the survey, following which the top court had assigned the matter to the District Court.
The District Court, after taking up the case, had ordered that it would first hear the Masjid panel’s application challenging the maintainability of the suit and then it would consider the findings of the video survey ordered by the civil court. Accordingly, the District Court had ordered all parties to file their objections to the survey report, which will be heard after the Masjid panel’s application is heard
Mathura mosque-temple
Meanwhile, in the Shahi Idgah Mosque-Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi civil dispute in Mathura, a civil court in the district on Friday adjourned the hearing in all related suits, owing to a condolence for a lawyer who had passed away.
In this case, two suits – one by Advocate Mahendra Pratap Singh and another by Manish Yadav – have been listed for next hearing on July 5. All other similar suits in the dispute have been posted next for July 15.
