LUCKNOW: Seized with the case relating to the Gyanvapi mosque-Vyas Tehkhana dispute, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday asked the parties concerned to refrain from making public statements or speaking to the media about the details of the case till the matter is sub-judice.
Adjourning the proceeding in the case till Wednesday, the bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said that it was not proper to discuss a sub-judice case in public.
The bench was hearing the plea of Anjuman Intezamia Masajd (AIM) challenging the Varanasi district court’s January 31 order allowing puja inside the southern cellar, also known as the Vyasji ka Tehkhana, by a priest nominated by Shree Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust.
Representing the AIM, advocate SFA Naqvi submitted in the court that by allowing the puja inside the southern cellar, the Varanasi district judge by his January 31 order had virtually allowed the final relief of worship rights to the Hindu plaintiff.
He also flagged out the haste in which the Varanasi district administration moved to comply with the district court’s order facilitating the puja inside the cellar removing the grill. The district court had given seven days’ time to the district administration authorities for compliance of the order.
The Muslim side’s counsel also claimed that no puja was ever performed by any member of the Vyas family inside the Tehkhana before 1993. He also submitted that there was no mention of the fact in the suit filed by Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas that this family was in possession of the tehkhana hence when his ancestor had already relinquished the right earlier, how could a suit be filed in 2023, asked the AIM counsel.
When Justice Agarwal asked advocate Naqvi to prove that the cellar was in possession of Muslim side, the senior counsel claimed that barricades around the premises prevented either side from taking possession but the southern cellar remained a part of the mosque.
Meanwhile, appearing for the original plaintiff Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas, prominent Supreme Court lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain argued that the AIM had not challenged the Varanasi district court’s order of January 17, 2024, appointing the Varanasi district magistrate as the receiver of the property.
Jain also told the court that his client had the possession of the cellar as they had the keys.
It may be mentioned that Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas had filed a petition seeking worship rights within the southern cellar claiming that his maternal grandfather, priest Somnath Vyas, used to perform regular puja inside the cellar till December 1993 when the then dispensation headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav got it locked and barricaded by a steel grill thus stopping Vyas’s entry for regular puja.
