Supreme Court Refuses To Urgently Hear Gyanvapi Mosque Committee's Plea Against Order Allowing Puja, Asks Them To Move HC
Yesterday, the Gyanvpai mosque committee made an unsuccessful attempt to get an urgent hearing in the Supreme Court for their application challenging the Varanasi District Court's order which allowed Hindus to perform prayers in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.Few hours after the District Court passed the order on January 31 afternoon, the Committee of Management, Anjuman...
Yesterday, the Gyanvpai mosque committee made an unsuccessful attempt to get an urgent hearing in the Supreme Court for their application challenging the Varanasi District Court's order which allowed Hindus to perform prayers in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.
Few hours after the District Court passed the order on January 31 afternoon, the Committee of Management, Anjuman Intezamia Masajid, Varanasi filed an urgent application seeking status quo at the mosque site. The lawyers of the mosque committee approached the residence of a Supreme Court registrar yesterday night seeking an urgent hearing at night itself, raising the apprehension that poojas will be performed inside the mosque during the night. The Registrar replied that he would inform after taking instructions from the Chief Justice of India.
This morning, around 7 AM, the Registrar telephonically conveyed to the mosque committee's Advocate-on-Record Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi the message from the Chief Justice of India that they have to approach the Allahabad High Court. Advocates Nizam Pasha, Rashmi Singh, Ibad Mushtaq, Akansha Rai were also in the legal team of the Gyanvapi mosque committee.
In the application, the mosque committee had contended that the administration was acting in 'hot haste' soon after the Varanasi Court's order to allow the pooja at night itself.
The application argued that these actions, occurring in the middle of the night, aimed to preempt any legal challenge by the mosque managing committee. In a letter to the Supreme Court's registry explaining the urgency of the situation, the committee, represented by Advocate-on-Record Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, wrote -
"There is no reason for the administration to undertake this task in hot haste in the dead of the night as the order passed by the Trial Court had already given them one week to make the necessary arrangements. The obvious reason for such unseemly haste is that the administration in collusion with the plaintiffs is trying to foreclose any attempt by the Mosque Managing Committee to avail of their remedies against the said order by presenting them with a fait accompli."