The Varanasi district court on January 24 ordered that the report of the scientific survey of Gyanvapi mosque, conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), be made public to allow all petitioners, both Hindus and Muslims, access to the same.
District Judge A.K. Vishvesha delivered the order while hearing a bunch of petitions filed by the Hindu petitioners seeking access to the report. The detailed order is awaited in which the court will direct the conditions for the parties to get the ASI report.
The ASI, in its application in the court on January 3, had urged the district judge to delay the release of its Gyanvapi SurveyReport by four weeks. The agency has made this request to get breathing time to file the report in the 1991 suit pertaining to the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque dispute currently pending in the Allahabad High Court.
The Central agency added that if the survey report is unsealed and disclosed in public before the submission of the copy of the said survey report in the High Court, there is more chance for rumours and misrepresentation that could affect its work.
The ASI had conducted a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi complex based on the orders of the Varanasi district court delivered on July 21. The court had asked the agency to determine if the mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here .