Varanasi Court to Deliver Verdict on Gyanvapi Mosque Survey Today

A local court in Varanasi on Thursday, 12 May, will deliver its verdict regarding the inspection of the Gyanvapi mosque complex located near the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

It will decide if videography could be allowed inside the mosque and if Ajay Kumar Mishra, the commissioner overseeing the survey, needs to be removed.

The court had, in April this year, ordered a video inspection of the site after five women affiliated with the right-wing group Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh filed petitions saying they were entitled to have daily darshan, pooja and perform rituals at the site of Maa Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesh, Lord Hanuman, and other “visible and invisible deities within old temple complex”.

The survey had started last Friday but wasn't fully completed owing to a dispute over videography inside the mosque.