India's Allahabad HC Allows Hindus To Pray In Gyanvapi Mosque Cellar

The Allahabad high court on Monday dismissed the Gyanvapi Mosque panel’s appeal challenging the Varanasi district judge’s orders last month allowing Hindu prayers in the masjid’s southern cellar and naming the local district magistrate (DM) as its caretaker.

“That after going through the entire records of the case and after considering arguments of the parties concerned, the court did not find any ground to interfere in the judgement passed by the district judge dated 17.01.2024 appointing DM, Varanasi, as receiver of the property as well as the order dated 31.01.2024 by which the district court had permitted Puja in the Tehkhana [cellar],” said Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal.

On February 15, Justice Agarwal reserved the judgment after hearing both parties for four days.

The Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi Mosque, on February 1 filed the appeal after the Supreme Court refused to urgently hear the matter. It has maintained the cellar has been under its possession as a part of the mosque premises.

The Hindu side has claimed that the Vyas family conducted religious ceremonies in the cellar until 1993. District judge AK Vishvesha granted the family the right to resume prayers in the southern cellar, saying that the petitioner Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas, and a priest appointed by the Kashi Vishwanath trust, which manages the temple next door, will be allowed to enter the premises.

The mosque committee unsuccessfully argued that the Hindu suits were barred by the 1991 Places of Worship Act, which locks the religious character of shrines as they existed on August 15, 1947, except the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex._HindustanTimes