Uttar Pradesh: Gyanvapi Mosque Committee Challenges ASI Survey as Unscientific, Warns of Potential Structural Issues in Varanasi Court

The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which manages the historic Gyanvapi mosque, has moved an application before the Varanasi district judge claiming that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is digging the premises which is against the court’s directions. The Masjid committee argued that the agency was not using the GPR technique to conduct the survey. The committee’s application came days after the ASI filed an application in the Varanasi district court seeking a further eight weeks to complete its survey of the mosque. The mosque committee urged the court to not grant any further extension of time to the ASI. The ASI has been conducting a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque, since August 4, on the orders of the Varanasi district court given on July 21, 2023. The aim is to determine if the mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple. The Hindu nationalists have been campaigning that the historic mosque was built on the site of the original Kashi Vishwanath temple, while Muslims maintain that the mosque was built on Waqf premises and that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 barred changing the character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.