May need trial to check religious character of Gyanvapi site, says SC

It may need a trial to determine the religious nature of the place where the Gyanvapi mosque stands in Varanasi, the Supreme Court observed on Friday even as the mosque management committee pressed that any suit seeking the right to worship Hindu deities inside the complex or title of the land is absolutely barred under the law.

- Utkarsh Anand

"You are saying you are covered by the Places of Worship Act, 1991. You say you cannot alter the status as it existed as on August 15, 1947, and it cannot be converted also. Therefore, what was the religious character also has to be led by evidence. Is it not?," a bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, asked senior counsel Huzefa Ahmadi, who appeared for the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the 17th century mosque.