Allahabad High Court on Monday (26 February) gave a big verdict in the Gyanvapi case of Varanasi. The court rejected the petition filed by the mosque committee and ordered the continuation of worship in the Vyas basement. This is being considered a big relief for the Hindu side. Not only this, the High Court in 1993 termed the decision of the then Mulayam Singh Yadav led government to ban worship in the southern basement of the Gyanvapi Masjid as illegal.
Actually, Varanasi District Court had given permission for worship in the Vyas basement of Gyanvapi Mosque on 31 January. This decision was challenged by the Muslim side in the High Court. The High Court rejected the petition of the Muslim side. The High Court upheld the decision of the Varanasi District Judge to appoint the Varanasi District Magistrate as the receiver of Vyas ji’s basement and to allow worship in the basement. The bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Aggarwal said that in 1993, the action taken by the then state government to stop the worship rituals in the southern basement of Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi without any written order was illegal.
What did the High Court say in its decision?
Actually, the Vyas family was worshiping in the Vyas basement for a long time. But in 1993, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government had banned the puja. According to the report of Live Law, Justice Rohit Ranjan Aggarwal said in his decision, ‘The state government’s move to stop the Vyas family from religious worship and rituals since 1993 was wrong. It would be against the interests of the devotees to stop the worship taking place in the basement. The Muslim side has now moved the Supreme Court on Gyanvapi.
After hearing all the parties in this case, the High Court had reserved its decision on 15 February. On Monday, the court said, worship will continue in the basement of Vyas ji. The Anjuman Intejamia Masjid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi Masjid, had challenged the two decisions of the Varanasi District Judge in the High Court. These decisions were to appoint the District Magistrate as the receiver of the basement and to allow worship in the basement. Both the appeals were rejected by the court. Justice Aggarwal said, the puja has already started at that place and it is continuing, so there is no justification to stop it.
