‘Will Read Papers & See’: CJI Ramana on Plea for Status Quo on Gyanvapi Mosque

A local court in Varanasi decided on Thursday that the Gyanvapi mosque's videography survey will continue.

Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana

(Photo: Samarth Grover/The Quint)

A day after a Varanasi court ordered the Gyanvapi mosque complex’s video inspection/survey to continue, Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, and sought status quo of the local court's order.

Stating that he has not yet read the papers to be aware of the verdict, LiveLaw reported CJI Ramana as saying, "I don't know anything, how can I pass an order? I'll read and then pass the orders.. let me see.”

Asking for status quo to be directed, Ahmadi submitted before the apex court that "survey has been directed in relation to Varanasi property. This is covered by Places of Worship Act. Now the court has ordered Commissioner to conduct a survey!”

The Varanasi court had ordered a video inspection of the site in April this year 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 court also decided that Ajay Kumar Mishra, the commissioner overseeing the survey, will not be removed.

"In any case, the survey work won't be stopped whether parties cooperate or they do not," the court observed.

Further, the court has asked the survey report to be submitted by 17 May.

Meanwhile, Advocate Madan Mohan Yadav, representing the Hindu petitioners in court, informed that two more lawyers have been appointed as commissioners to accompany the court commissioner Ajay Mishra for the survey.

The survey, which began last Friday, wasn't fully completed owing to a dispute over videography inside the mosque.

The caretaker committee of the mosque and its lawyers had stated that they are against any videography inside the mosque. The lawyers for the petitioners however, had said that they have the court's go-ahead.

The Gyanvapi Mosque-Kashi Viswanath dispute had deepened after a Varanasi court had allowed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake a physical survey to establish whether the mosque was built on the ruins of the temple or not on 8 April 2021.