District judge said the case will continue to be heard by the court…
On Monday, A court agreed to hear the case of five Hindu women who want to pray at a shrine inside the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple. Their further petition will be heard on September 22.
It is a big step forward for the five women, who want permission for puja and rituals in a part of the mosque complex. They claim that idols of Hindu gods and goddesses are there in the complex.
Muslim petitioners, mainly mosque administrators, want the petition thrown out and say they are ready to fight till the Supreme Court.
Their challenge was rejected on all three counts they had cited. The most important of these is the 1991 law that freezes the status of a place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. The petitioners don't want ownership, just the right to worship, the court said.
Earlier this year, a lower court ordered the filming of the Historical Mosque based on the petition of the women.
The videography report, controversially leaked by the Hindu petitioners, claimed a "Shivling" or relic of Lord Shiva had been found in a pond within the mosque complex used for "Wazoo" or purification rituals before Muslim prayers.
A court then sealed the pond and banned large namaz gatherings in the high-profile mosque. The gatherings should be limited to 20 people, said the court.
The filming inside the mosque was challenged in the Supreme Court by the Gyanvapi mosque committee, which said the move violates the law of (Places of Worship Act).
The Muslim petitioners argued that "such petitions and sealing of mosques will lead to public mischief and communal disharmony in the entire nation, will affect mosques across the country too".
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