Gyanvapi panel moves apex court against survey by ASI

NEW DELHI/VARANASI: Officials from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are expected to begin their survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid premises on Friday morning between 7am and 8am, officials in Varanasi said, even as the mosque management committee's plea in the Supreme Court for a stay on the survey is unlikely to be taken up before 10.30am, when the bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud usually assembles

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Hours after the Allahabad high court cleared the decks for the controversial survey, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the 17th-century mosque, rushed to the apex court, pressing for an urgent hearing.

A bench, headed by CJI Chandrachud will take up the plea for an immediate stay on the survey on Friday.

In its appeal, the committee emphasised that the structure was always a mosque and remained a mosque as on August 15, 1947, and therefore, findings of the survey will be rendered nugatory in view of the Places of Worship Act.

The act locks the religious nature of a structure as it existed on August 15, 1947, with the exception of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.

"The survey would also hinder peaceful access of Muslims to the mosque in violation of the May 2022 order of the top court, directing that access and religious observance of Muslims inside the complex shall not be impeded," the committee argued in its petition.

But by the time the petition is taken up, the survey is likely to have already commenced.