Varanasi district judge to decide sequence of Gyanvapi petitions, objections today

VARANASI: Beginning the trial of the main petition related to the worship of Shringar Gauri and other deities within the Gyanvapi premises in compliance with the May 20 order of the Supreme Court, Varanasi district judge Dr Ajay Krishna Vishwesh on Monday fixed May 24 as the date on which the court will pronounce the sequence in which the petitions, additional pleas, objections and other add-ons will be heard.

After almost 44 minutes of hearing at the district judge court, district government counsel (civil) Mahendra Prasad Pandey told TOI, “The hearing at the district judge court in Gyanvapi suit started with the arguments by the advocates of the mosque management committee, the Anjuman Intejamia Masajid (AIM). They questioned the maintainability of the main petition on the ground of Order VII, Rule 11 (maintainability) of Civil Procedure Code.”
AIM advocate Mumtaz Ahmed said, “We had submitted an application on January 3 itself, questioning the maintainability of this case. The Supreme Court on May 20 had also directed to first decide on the admissibility of this suit filed on ground of Order VII, Rule 11 (Maintainability) of Civil Procedure Code before proceeding with the case on merits.”
Referring to similar objections raised by the AIM in the past in this case, the advocate of plaintiffs Vishnu Jain requested the court to examine the vital evidence found during the recent court commission survey.
Jain mentioned that data cards containing photos and video clips, submitted before the court with the court commission report, contain this vital evidence. Simultaneous hearing on the issues of maintainability, the already submitted court commission report and objections against the evidence would be better in this case as it is a mixed question of law and facts, he added.
DGC (civil), who also sought the copy of AIM’s application seeking examining of the suit, said, “Issues of applications including the one given by me to seek alternative arrangement of wuzu and washroom after existing ones were sealed after the claims that a shivling had been found in the area and also shifting of fishes of pond to save their lives were also mentioned.”