Varanasi: AIM opposes VVSS petition seeking ban on entry of Muslims in Gyanvapi mosque

VARANASI: Anjuman Intezamia Masajid (AIM) — the Gyanvapi mosque management committee — on Tuesday challenged the maintainability of Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh’s (VVSS) petition seeking ban on the entry of Muslims in Gyanvapi mosque, handing over Gyanvapi premises to the Hindus and permitting regular puja-archana (worshipping) of Lord Aadi Visheshwar in the court of civil judge senior division (fast-track court) Mahendra Kumar Pandey.
Additional district government counsel (civil) Sulabh Prakash said, “The FTC will continue hearing in this case Wednesday.” AIM lawyers said that as Gyanvapi mosque is a waqf property, the Waqf Board should have been made a party in the case.
“Worshipping was performed at Kashi Vishwanath temple while namaz was offered at Gyanvapi mosque for a long time. The term ‘old and new’ temple had never been used,” they said while challenging VVSS’s petition under Order VII, Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code.
VVSS, which is backing plaintiff no. 1 in case no. 18/2022 Rakhi Singh vs state of UP and others to seek the right to daily worship Shringar Gauri and other deities in Gyanvapi mosque compound, had also filed another petition to seek worshipping of the ‘shivling’ found in the ablution pond of Gyanvapi mosque during court commission survey on May 16 and ban on entry of Muslims in Gyanvapi before FTC. VVSS chief Jitendra Singh Visen’s wife Kiran Singh is the plaintiff in this case.