Allahabad HC allows Hindu puja to continue in Gyanvapi mosque cellar

LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed the plea challenging the Varanasi District Court's order allowing Hindu pujas to be performed at the Gyanvapi mosque. On January 31, the Varanasi District Court ordered that the Hindu priest could offer pujas inside the southern cellar of the mosque. And now, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal of Allahabad HC quashed the plea filed by the mosque committee challenging the Hindu Pooja ritual inside the mosque cellar.

The Varanasi court's order was on a petition submitted by Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas who showed that his maternal grandfather Somnath Vyas had performed puja in the cellar till 1993. Later, it was said that the puja started in the 'Vyas Ka Tehkhana' vault of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex. There are four tehkhanas (vaults) in the basement of the mosque complex.

The mosque committee approached the Allahabad High Court against the Varanasi district court action. The mosque committee in the petition refuted the existence of any empirical evidence of an idol in the cellar and also dismissed the puja story as surmises.

However, the earlier Archeological Survey of India (ASI) report confirmed that Gyanvapi was built on the remnants of Hindu temples during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Varanasi District Court allowed the Hindu puja to be performed only after contemplating the ASI report. But the mosque committee, which rejected the report, argued that no idols existed in the vault and therefore prayers were not offered there until 1993.