SC halts the Gyanvapi survey by ASI till 5PM on July 26, allowing some ‘breathing time’ to the Gyanvapi Mosque Committee

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) to halt the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque till 5 PM on July 26. The primary motive behind the survey was to determine if the mosque was built on top of a pre-existing ancient Hindu temple as a ‘shivling’ was found at the mosque’s wazukhana. The Supreme Court bench passed this order allowing some ‘breathing time’ to the Gyanvapi Masjid Committee (Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee) to approach the Allahabad High Court against the Varanasi District Court’s order to conduct the survey of the mosque. While dictating the order, the bench considered the fact that the Varanasi Court’s order was passed on the evening of July 21. Also, the SC bench including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Manoj Misra, and Justice PS Narasimha directed the HC to hear the matter before the interim order expires (July 26). Moreover, the SC bench also directed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to communicate the order to the ASI which had sent a team of 30 members to the mosque premises to conduct the survey. On July 24 (today), the matter was heard by a three-judge bench on an urgent mention by the Gyanvapi Mosque committee.

During the Court proceedings, the Senior Advocate appearing for the Gyanvapi committee, Huzefa Ahmadi, contended that the excavation of the mosque will cause irreversible damage. In context with the District Court’s order, he added, “This is an order that was passed almost two years ago specifically against an SI survey. Now, this order was passed on a Friday.” He suggested giving some time to the committee to approach the HC. CJI remarked, “What we can do is, let there be no invasive work carried out.” Along with this, the Senior Advocate appearing for the Hindu plaintiffs, Shyam Divan, mentioned that the latest passed order excluded the area where ‘shivling’ was said to be found. While arguing on this matter, Solicitor General Mehta said that the latest order is not related to any ‘invasive procedure’ that may cause harm to the ‘shivling’. On the contrary, Ahmadi said that ASI started excavation and claimed that the order used the word ‘excavation’ specifically. This was directly refused by SA Divan, he mentioned that the order only referred to non-invasive processes such as GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar). However, Ahmadi protested, “No, they will excavate. Please see the order… it says that the director of ASI is directed to GPR survey, excavation, dating method wherever required…”

After hearing all the contentions presented by SG Tushar Mehta, SA Huzefa Ahmadi, and Advocate Shyam Divan, the Supreme Court bench decided to stay the order implementation (passed by Varanasi District Court) till Wednesday (July 26) evening.

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