The Allahabad High Court on February 26 dismissed a plea by the Muslim side against a Varanasi district court's order allowing Hindus to offer prayers in a restricted area inside Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque. Vyas Ka Tehkhana is a restricted area inside the mosque.
A bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal on February 15 reserved the judgment after a four-day hearing on the appeal filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC).
Here is a quick recap of the case.
What is Vyas Ka Tehkhana?
The mosque has four “tehkhanas” in the basement. One of them is still in the possession of the Vyas family who used to live there.
Vyasji ka tehkhana is in the southern area of the mosque’s barricaded complex. It faces the Nandi statue inside the Kashi Vishwanath complex near the sanctum sanctorum. It is around 7 feet tall and has a carpet area of around 900 square feet. According to the petitioner Shailendra Pathak Vyas, the Vyas family had been conducting prayers and other rituals inside the tehkhana for over 200 years, but the practice was stopped in December 1993. The place was known as “Vyasji ki gaddi” since the family had been provided space inside the tehkhana to worship there.
Why were the prayers discontinued?
According to the petitioner, “Vyasji’s” entry was prohibited in the tehkhana in December 1993 and hence the prayers had to be discontinued. His lawyer Subhash Chaturvedi told Indian Express: “The Mulayam Singh Yadav government prohibited worship inside the Vyasji ka tehkhana in the name of law and order. Before that, Pandit Somnath Vyas had carried out Hindi worship rituals here regularly.”
Timeline of AIMC plea
•AIMC had moved the high court on February 2 after the Supreme Court refused to urgently hear its plea against the Varanasi district court order.
•The Varanasi district court ruled on January 31 that a priest can perform prayers before the idols in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.
•The puja was performed in the Gyanvapi compound earlier in February for the first time in three decades.
•The court’s order followed a petition against the AIMC which manages the Gyanvapi mosque.
•On February 2, the Allahabad High Court dismissed the Muslim side’s plea to stay the Varanasi court’s January 31 order allowing the Hindu side to offer prayers in the southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque.
•The high court had granted time until February 6 for AIMC to amend its pleas to include a challenge to a January 17 order consequent to which the January 31 order was passed.
•The Court on February 12 heard an appeal moved by the AIMC challenging the Varanasi District Court’s January 31 order allowing Hindus to perform prayers in Vyas Ji ka Tehkhana.
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