What is the Gyanvapi Masjid case? Understand the issue in 6 points

A Varanasi court has said video inspection of Gyanvapi Mosque, located next to Kashi Vishwanath Temple, should be completed by Tuesday, May 17.

1) The court had ordered an inspection in April this year following petitions by five Hindu women asking for year-long access to pray at a shrine behind the western wall of the mosque complex. The site is currently opened for prayers once a year. The women also want permission to pray to other “visible and invisible deities within the old temple complex”.

2) The court said on Thursday it had decided not to replace the commissioner overseeing the survey, but to appoint to more.

3) Abhay Nath Yadav, the lawyer for the Gyanvapi mosque management committee, had alleged the first commissioner, Ajay Kumar Mishra, was biased and the mosque committee had petitioned for his replacement.

4) The local court had earlier directed the authorities to submit a report by May 10. The survey that started last Friday could not be completed because of the dispute over videography inside the mosque.

5) Joint secretary of the mosque committee Syed Mohammad Yasin on Wednesday said there was barricading all around the mosque and the petitioners wanted the videography done by opening them.

6) The petitioners’ lawyer, Shivam Gaur, had claimed that in an order for videography survey issued by the court on April 26, they could do the survey by going inside the barricading.

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Gyanvapi Masjid case: Varanasi court orders to conduct video survey of mosque by May 17