Puja in Gyanvapi mosque cellar: Muslim side moves Allahabad High Court after Supreme Court refuses to intervene

New Delhi, February 1

The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages the Gyanvpai mosque in Varanasi, on Thursday moved the Allahabad High Court against a Varanasi district court’s order allowing a Hindu priest to offer ‘puja’ to deities kept in the mosque’s cellar after the Supreme Court refused to intervene and advised them to approach the high court.

The committee has sought urgent hearing of the matter as ‘puja’ at the cellar has already started.

Earlier in the day, the top court asked the committee to approach the high court against the Varanasi district court’s order.

The Varanasi court had on Wednesday granted a Hindu priest the right to worship deities in the Gyanvapi mosque cellar (Tahakhana) where all religious rites, rituals and practices were stopped in 1993 – months after demolition of Babri Mosque on December 6, 1992.

Varanasi District Judge AK Vishvesha had directed the District Magistrate to make arrangements in seven days to facilitate ‘puja’ and ‘raag-bhog’ to be offered to the deities kept in the cellar by priest Shailendra Kumar Pathak.

The court had also directed the District Magistrate to install iron bars around the deities in the cellar to facilitate ‘puja’ by the priest suggested by the Kashi Vishwanath Trust, which manages the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, standing adjacent to the mosque that the Hindu side claimed was constructed after demolishing a pre-existing temple.

Contending that his maternal grandfather—priest Somnath Vyas—used to perform prayers at the cellar till 1993 when it was closed by the government authorities, Pathak had sought the right to worship the deities kept there.