Hindu Prayers To Continue In Gyanvapi Cellar, High Court Rejects Petition

The Allahabad High Court today dismissed a petition challenging the Varanasi district court's decision to allow Hindu prayers in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.

The Varanasi district court had last month ruled that a priest can offer prayers in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.

The order was delivered on the petition of Shailendra Kumar Pathak, who said his maternal grandfather Somnath Vyas offered prayers till December 1993. Mr Pathak had requested that, as a hereditary pujari, he be allowed to enter the tahkhana and resume pooja.

The mosque has four 'tehkhanas' (cellars) in the basement, and one of them is still with the Vyas family.

The Varanasi district court order came after an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report on the mosque complex was made public.

The ASI survey, ordered by the same court, in connection with a related case, suggested that the mosque was constructed during Aurangzeb's rule over the remains of a Hindu temple.

The mosque committee refuted the petitioner's version. The committee said no idols existed in the cellar, so there was no question of prayers being offered there till 1993.

The committee went to the high court on February 2 within hours of the Supreme Court refusing to hear its plea against the Varanasi district court order and asking it to approach the high court.

The Allahabad High Court had reserved its order after hearing both parties on February 15.