Hindus get court nod to pray at Gyanvapi

Varanasi: A Varanasi district court on Wednesday granted the family of a priest the right to worship Hindu deities in the ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’ area inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

District Judge Ajay Krishna Vishwesha also asked the District Magistrate to take over the basement and ensure that the puja starts in next 7 days. The court allowed a priest’s kin the right to worship deities in Gyanvapi mosque cellar, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side, said. “...puja will start within seven days. Everyone will have the right to perform puja... Hindu side allowed to offer prayers at ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’.

The District Administration will have to make arrangements within 7 days,” Jain said.

The mosque has four ‘tahkhanas’ (cellars) in the basement out of which one is still in possession of the Vyas family who used to live there. According to the petition, priest Somnath Vyas used to perform prayers there till 1993 when the cellar was closed by the authorities.

After 1993, the prayers were stopped in the basement on the orders of the then State Government. Shailendra Kumar Pathak, maternal grandson of Somnath Vyas, had sought the right to worship deities there.

Meanwhile, a mosque committee has said that it will approach the Allahabad High Court to challenge the judgment.