A court in Varanasi, while hearing the Gyanvapi mosque case, said that it would pass orders on Tuesday, 24 May, regarding when the fresh hearings of the case will begin.
The court is also scheduled to decide on Tuesday whether the case regarding "maintainability" will be heard first, as requested by the mosque committee, Bar and Bench reported.
The Supreme Court, on Friday, had asked the court in Varanasi to decide if the survey conducted inside the mosque and the petition that allowed it were maintainable.
Following the top court’s direction to transfer the Gyanvapi mosque-related proceedings from the civil judge to a ‘senior and experienced’ district judge, Dr AK Vishvesha, District and Sessions Judge of Varanasi, began hearing the matter on Monday, 23 May.
Dr Vishvesha, on the top court’s instructions, is slated to decide the application filed by the mosque committee under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, arguing the suit by Hindu devotees is barred by the Places of Worship Act on priority.
Entry Inside Courtroom Restricted
According to Bar and Bench, the purpose of Monday’s hearing was to chart out the way ahead and decipher how the hearings in this case would be conducted. Only the parties involved in the case and their counsel were allowed entry in the courtroom on Monday.
According to LiveLaw, even former court-appointed commissioner Ajay Mishra was not allowed inside the courtroom.
LiveLaw cited court employees as saying that only those whose name will be in the vakalatnama, will be allowed inside the courtroom.
Meanwhile, an application was reportedly filed under 156 (3) CrPC before Chief Judicial Magistrate for registration of FIR under sections 153A(2) and 505 (3) IPC against persons who allegedly performed wazoo, between 16-19 May, in the wazookhana where an alleged shivling was indicated by the Hindu petitioners to have been found. Pertinently, the apex court had on 20 May ordered that if adequate arrangements for wazoo (ritual washing) have not been made, then district magistrate in consultation with mosque committee should make proper arrangements.
Lawyer and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has, on his part, filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking impleadment in the Gyanvapi mosque case.
Meanwhile, Advocate Vishnu Jain, who represents the Hindu side, said, "The hearing was completed and the decision has been kept reserved. The next date of hearing will be given. We had given an application to provide us with CD and photographs of the report submitted by the commission."
(With inputs from LiveLaw and Bar and Bench.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)