Gyanvapi case plaintiffs to move to Supreme Court today for survey of cellars

Gyanvapi case plaintiffs to move to Supreme Court today for survey of cellars

VARANASI: The Hindu women plaintiffs in the Gyanvapi case are set to approach the Supreme Court on Monday to request listing of a plea for opening 10 cellars of the Varanasi mosque sealed with artificial walls, impeding their survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The plea was initially filed in October 2023.

The plaintiffs’ advocate, Vishnu Shankar Jain, contended that these cellars were believed to contain crucial evidence of a Hindu temple predating the current edifice, as revealed in last week’s ASI survey report handed to the Hindu side and the mosque custodians on a Varanasi court’s orders.

“In our special leave petition, we have requested court to instruct ASI to conduct a scientific investigation, using modern techniques, in all cellars on the southern and northern sides. The ASI must also be directed to carry out repairs after opening the artificial walls within the cellars,” Jain said on Sunday.

Citing the plea, Jain specified that there were five cellars each on the north and south sides, most of them obstructed by artificial walls.

Jain claimed the sealed cellars had evidence and artefacts of the Hindu temple.

107202837The report has brought greater “clarity” to the plaintiffs’ claims about the cellars’ closure with the artificial walls, Jain said, adding a map had been submitted with SC plea. The ASI report’s cellar section details the number of cellars where brick walls were discovered.

On Monday, Jain will present another plea before SC. This seeks an ASI survey of the sealed “wuzukhana (ablution water tank)” on the Gyanvapi premises. The tank has been sealed since May 16, 2022, after the Hindu side claimed that a purported “Shivling” was found there during an earlier court-mandated survey.

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