Allahabad High Court To Hear Bunch Of Pleas Concerning Gyanvapi-Kashi Title Dispute On September 18
The Allahabad High Court will hear on September 18 the pleas concerning the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi land title dispute including a petition against the Varanasi Court's ASI survey order of 2021.The bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker today heard the cases and posted the matter for further hearing on September 18.This development comes a day after the CJ bench's order of August 28 was...
The Allahabad High Court will hear on September 18 the pleas concerning the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi land title dispute including a petition against the Varanasi Court's ASI survey order of 2021.
The bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker today heard the cases and posted the matter for further hearing on September 18.
This development comes a day after the CJ bench's order of August 28 was made public specifying the reasons for the withdrawal of the cases from the bench of Justice Prakash Padia. In his order, the CJ stated that the decision was taken by him (CJ) on the administrative side "in the interest of judicial propriety and judicial discipline as well as the transparency in the listing of cases".
The order reasoned that non-observance of the procedure in listing the cases, passing of successive orders for reserving the judgment and again listing the cases before the Judge (Justice Prakash Padia) for hearing through he no longer had the jurisdiction as per the master of the roster, had led to the withdrawal of the cases.
For the uninitiated, as reported by LiveLaw on August 25, the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque land title dispute cases were transferred to the bench of Chief Justice. This development had come exactly a month after a different bench (comprising Justice Prakash Padia), which had been hearing the matter since August 2021, concluded the hearing and reserved the orders in the matter on July 25.
Coincidently, a bench of Justice Padia was to deliver the verdict in the matters on August 25 itself. The reason for the transfer of matters to a different bench could not be ascertained then, however, as mentioned above, the rationale for such a decision has now been disclosed.
On August 28, when the matters came up for hearing before the CJ bench, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee (which manages Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi) had raised an objection that the cases ought not to have been withdrawn from the bench of Justice Prakash Padia, on the administrative side, by the Chief Justice, for being heard all over again
In his 12-page order, the Chief Justice has stated that essentially his order on the administrative side emanated from a complaint which was made before him on July 27, 2023, by a counsel of one of the parties to the proceedings, highlighting the fact that hearing in the dispute cases was proceeding in derogation of the procedure laid down in law for listing of the cases as per the rules.
Read more about the order of the CJ passed on August 28 here: Gyanvapi-Kashi Title Dispute | 'Procedural Aberration, Jurisdictional Impropriety': Allahabad HC CJ Specifies Reasons For Withdrawing Cases From Single-Judge
The pleas before the Court include a challenge to the maintainability of a suit filed before a Varanasi court, seeking the restoration of a temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque exists.
Another plea before the bench is of the Anjuman Masjid Committee (which manages the GYANVAPI MOSQUE), challenging a 2021 order of the Varanasi Court to conduct an archaeological survey of the Mosque complex to determine whether a Hindu temple was partially razed to build the Gyanvapi mosque in the 17th century.
Case Title - Anjuman Intazamia Masazid Varanasi vs. Ist A.D.J. Varanasi And Others [MATTERS UNDER ARTICLE 227 No. - 3341 of 2017]