New Delhi. The issue of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Mosque has once again reached the doorstep of the Supreme Court. This time the issue is regarding Vyasji’s basement. The Masjid Committee, i.e. the Muslim side, has filed an application in the Supreme Court to ban worship in the basement of Vyasji located at Gyanvapi Masjid. The puja started again after 30 years in Vyasji’s basement. The Masjid Committee had filed an application against this in the Allahabad High Court. After much hearing, Allahabad High Court refused to ban the puja in Vyasji’s basement. This decision of the High Court has been challenged by the Muslim side in the Supreme Court. Now the hearing will be held in the Supreme Court on 1 April.
The Muslim side claims that worship was never held in Vyasji’s basement. At the same time, the Hindu side presented evidence in the court of District Judge of Varanasi and Allahabad High Court that till 1993, daily puja was held in the basement of Vyasji. Ramayana was also recited in Vyasji’s basement. The Hindu side says that suddenly in 1993, the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government of UP got a fence installed around Gyanvapi. Because of that fence, Vyasji’s family stopped going to the basement and the worship stopped. On the basis of the evidence given by the Hindu side, the District Judge of Varanasi had handed over the Vyasji basement to the administration on 17 January. Then on January 31, the decision was given to hold the puja there. The puja is going on from the same date.
Apart from the issue of Vyasji’s basement, the Hindu side has laid claim on the Gyanvapi complex. Whose hearing is going on in the court of District Judge of Varanasi. Survey of Gyanvapi Masjid has also been done by ASI. ASI has claimed in its report that before the mosque, there was a huge temple in Gyanvapi. The Muslim side is also not satisfied with the report of this survey. At present, the issue of Gyanvapi Masjid is likely to drag on in the courts.