Anjuman Intezamia Masajid submits documents to back its waqf claim about Gyanvapi mosque

VARANASI: Anjuman Intezamia Masajid — the Gyanvapi mosque management committee — submitted all documents before the court of Varanasi district judge, Ajay Krishna Vishvesha, in support of its claim that Gyanvapi mosque was a waqf property and completed its arguments on the issue on Tuesday.
With this, hearing on maintainability of the case filed by Rakhi Singh and others has reached its final stage. The five plaintiffs have sought worshipping rights at Shringar Gauri and other deities inside Gyanvapi mosque compound. The AIM has challenged its maintainability.
On Wednesday morning, the AIM will continue its final arguments on the issues of Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991 and Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act after which the plaintiffs are likely to give their final submission on maintainability of the case in the afternoon.
Led by senior advocate Shamim Ahmed, AIM’s panel of six lawyers continued arguments for the second consecutive day on Tuesday to prove that Gyanvapi mosque was a waqf property.
“As plaintiffs claimed that we have not submitted any document in support of our claims made in reply to the points of their petition, we submitted all necessary documents before the district judge court and also explained their contents,” said Rayees Ahmed, a member of AIM lawyers’ panel.
He said that apart from the documents of gazetting of waqf properties of Varanasi in 1944 by the then district magistrate which showed Gyanvapi mosque at serial number 100, the documents of mutation of the property as per Section 37 of the Waqf Act of 1995 were also submitted.
“Furthermore, we also mentioned the case of Deen Mohammad vs secretary of state 1936, in which the area of the mosque has been mentioned. In this matter, dissatisfied over the lower court’s order, the AIM had moved the high court to get more area by claiming it as mosque property. However, in 1944 the HC had asked AIM to follow the order of the lower court. We have also submitted a copy of the HC judgement today (Tuesday),” he added.
“Besides, we also submitted documents related to the government seeking the mosque's land on lease for establishing a police control room in Gyanvapi after the mosque was given security cover in 1992. Documents of recent exchange of the same property and the land of KV temple between AIM and temple authorities through the UP governor were also submitted,” he told TOI.
He added that apart from these, details of all the cases contested by the AIM since 1936 were also submitted and their contents were explained to prove that Gyanvapi mosque is a waqf property.
He said that the AIM’s arguments on the issue of waqf property have concluded on Tuesday. “We will give our submissions on Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991 and Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act on Wednesday in reply to the counter arguments by the lawyers of the plaintiffs against our initial submissions. It is expected that the process of filing these submissions will conclude on Wednesday,” he added.
Vishnu Jain and other advocates of four women plaintiffs — Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, Manju Vyas and Rekha Pathak — said, “The district judge court has given AIM the time of 11.30 am on Wednesday to present the final submissions. After that, we will start presenting our submissions. We expect that a hearing on the issue of maintainability of the case would be completed on Wednesday after which the decision of the court will be awaited.”