Gyanvapi Masjid case: Court rejects plea seeking carbon dating of Shivling

VARANASI: The Varanasi district court here rejected the plea seeking carbon dating to determine the age of the purported Shivling found in the Gyanvapi Masjid complex. The court also said that carrying out tests like carbon dating is a violation of the Supreme Court order sealing the spot of the Shivling inside the mosque.

Earlier, the arguments of the petitioners in the case, the Hindu sect and the opposing Gyanvapi Masjid Committee, were completed. The mosque committee argued that carbon dating cannot be done in the mosque complex and it is against the Supreme Court order. Then District Judge AK Vishesh rejected the petition.

In Varanasi, the lawyers who conducted the survey on the orders of the court had earlier claimed that they had found the Shivling in the pond of the Gyanvapi Masjid adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. But the mosque committee says that it is not a Shivaling but a part of the fountain. Following this, the Hindu community filed a petition in the court asking for permission to perform pooja on the Shivling and to carry out carbon dating to determine its age.

The main petition was filed by five Hindu women seeking to allow daily worship of the idols near the west wall of the mosque complex. The Varanasi Civil Court, which first heard this petition, appointed a commission of lawyers to conduct a survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid on May 16. After the intervention of the Supreme Court, the case was transferred from the civil court to the district court.