Only waqf board can hear Gyanvapi cases, says Anjuman Intezamia Masajid

VARANASI: The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid - the Gyanvapi mosque management committee - submitted on Wednesday in the court of the civil judge, senior division (fast-track court), Mahendra Kumar Pandey, that the issues related to Gyanvapi mosque property could be heard at the Waqf Board's Lucknow tribunal only as it was a waqf property.
The fast-track court (FTC) was hearing a petition by the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh (VVSS) to seek the right to worship the purported 'shivling' found in the ablution pond of the Gyanvapi mosque during a court commission survey on May 16 and to demand a ban on Muslims entering the Gyanvapi compound.
The VVSS, which is backing plaintiff number one in Rakhi Singh vs state of UP and others (case 18/2022) to seek the right to daily worship Shringar Gauri and other deities in the Gyanvapi mosque compound, had filed another petition with the above pleas after the discovery of what it claims is a "shivling".
Additional district government counsel (civil) Sulabh Prakash said the FTC will continue hearing this case on Thursday. "The AIM is challenging the maintainability of the petition seeking a ban on entry of Muslims into Gyanvapi mosque, handing over Gyanvapi premises to the Hindus, and permitting regular puja-archana (worship) of Lord Aadi Visheshwar," he said.
AIM lawyer Akhlaque Ahmed said, "On the issue of the jurisdiction of waqf property, we mentioned in the court that the petition can be heard only by the Waqf Tribunal as Gyanvapi mosque is a waqf property." VVSS chief Jitendra Singh Visen's wife, Kiran Singh, is the plaintiff in this case.