New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently list on May 19 a petition challenging an Allahabad High Court direction to determine the age of the “shivling” allegedly found in the Gyanvapi mosque premises at Varanasi through carbon dating.
Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, for Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Varanasi, the mosque’s caretakers, pleaded urgency.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud agreed to urgently list the matter after senior counsel Huzefa Ahmedi, appearing for the committee, mentioned the appeal.
“The high court has passed an order last week, pending the final judgment. An application was made for carbon dating and that has been allowed,” Ahmedi said.
When the CJI responded that it could be listed on May 22, Ahmedi pointed out that the scientific study by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is scheduled to begin on that day. The CJI then agreed to list the matter for a hearing on Friday.
On May 12, the high court set aside a Varanasi district court order rejecting a demand for carbon dating of the structure found inside the Gyanvapi Masjid complex. The high court asked the district judge to proceed in accordance with law on the application by Hindu worshippers for conducting a scientific probe of the structure found during a survey last year.
It allowed the revision petition filed by Laxmi Devi and three others challenging the Varanasi court order that rejected the demand for carbon dating in October 2022.
Carbon dating is a method of calculating the age of very old objects by measuring the amount of different forms of carbon in them.
The Gyanvapi dispute dates back decades. In August 2021, five women filed a petition in a local court demanding the right of unhindered worship at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal located inside the complex that houses idols of Hindu gods.
In April 2022, the local court ordered a controversial survey of the complex, which triggered protests. The survey was finally completed in May, but not before the Hindu side claimed that a Shivling was found in the final hours of the exercise. The court clamped security on the entire complex even as the Muslim side argued that the structure found was a ceremonial ablution fountain.
The case reached the Supreme Court, which on May 20, 2022, transferred the suit from the Varanasi civil judge to the district judge and protected the site. In September, the district court ruled that the pleas by the Hindu women were maintainable.
Four of the five women filed a plea seeking carbon dating or scientific investigation of the structure, the complex walls and the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal. The plea was opposed not only by the mosque committee but also one of the Hindu petitioners, Rakhi Singh, who called the plea a publicity stunt and said that carbon dating of the ‘shivling’ would be an act of sacrilege.
On October 14, the district court rejected the plea, citing Supreme Court directives to keep the premises sealed.
