The Allahabad High Court has reserved it verdict in an appeal which was filed by the management committee of the Anjuman Intezamia Society Committee challenging the order of a Varanasi court that held that the suit filed by Hindu parties seeking worship rights inside the Gyanvapi Mosque to be maintainable.
Justice JJ Munir reserved the verdict after arguments were concluded.
District Judge Dr AK Vishvesha on September 12,had dismissed the plea by the Muslim party that contested the maintainability of the suit through an application filed under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC).
The issue came up when the Hindu devotees came to the civil court stating that the they have a right to worship inside the premises of the Gyanvapi Mosque as it was a Hindu temple and still houses Hindu deities.
The civil court then ordered a survey of the Mosque through advocate commissioner. The video-graphed survey was submitted with a report to the civil court.
Meanwhile the Muslim party filed an application under Order VII Rule 11 of the CPC that contested the maintainability of the suit on ground that the Places of Worship Act of 1991.
The Places of Worship Act was introduced at when the Ram Janmabhoomi movement,was at its peak.. It seeks to protect the status of all religious structures as it stood on August 15, 1947.
As per the Section 4 of the Act, the religious character of a place of worship existing on August 15, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day.
The Act bars the courts from entertaining the cases regarding places of worship. The provision also states that such cases already pending in courts would stand abated.
The trial court has agreed to the fact that the plaintiff has not sought conversion of the place of worship from a mosque to temple.
The appellants were represented by Senior Advocate Syed Ahmed Faizan and Advocate Zaheer Asghar.
The respondents were represented by Advocates Prabhash Pandey, Arya Suman Pandey, Saurabh Tiwari ,Vishnu Shankar Jain and Vineet Sankalp.