SC to hear Gyanvapi committee’s appeal on temple restoration suits

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal of the Gyanvapi management committee against an Allahabad High Court order which held that lawsuits for “restoration” of a temple, which was claimed to have stood where the mosque stands in Varanasi, are maintainable. “We will tag this with the main case,” a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said.

The petition was filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, the committee which manages the affairs of the Gyanvapi mosque. On December 19 last year, the Allahabad High Court had dismissed pleas challenging the maintainability of a 1991 suit seeking “restoration” of a temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque stands.

The HC had said the “religious character” of a disputed place can only be decided by the court. It had dismissed five related petitions on maintainability and against a survey of the mosque premises filed over the years by the mosque management committee and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board.