Varanasi: All you need to know about Gyanvapi Mosque row?

A team of lawyers and opposing legal parties, led by a court-appointed advocate commissioner, last week surveyed the Shringar Gauri site located at a wall of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex in Varanasi. Ajay Kumar Mishra, the commissioner, conducted the videography of the place without any major incident. While the court order didn’t specifically mention videography inside the mosque, its caretakers objected to the same.

Last April, a civil judge had appointed the commissioner after five people petitioned that they should be allowed to perform daily darshan, pooja and other rituals of Maa Shringar Gauri and other deities within the old temple complex.

The litigants claimed the existence of an image of the Goddess on the western wall of the mosque situated adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. They demanded that the caretakers of the mosques allow daily darshan, prayer, aarti, bhog and other rituals without any restrictions, obstacles and hindrance.  

In March, the Allahabad High Court rejected the petition filed by the caretakers of the mosque against the order of the judge appointing a court commissioner to inspect the site. 

The survey was conducted by the team on Friday without much ado. There had been some sloganeering in the area, but the situation remained under control.