Hindu devotees cite British era stand in Gyanvapi dispute to buttress claim

TIL Desk/National/Varanasi/ Hindu women plaintiffs who have filed a civil suit before the Varanasi court seeking declaration and asserting the right to darshan and worship Hindu deities whose idols are located on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi has referred to stand taken by the British government in a 1936 suit seeking it to be declared as Waqf property.

In an affidavit filed through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, three of the five women devotees said that in 1936, one Deen Mohammed has filed a civil suit without impleading any member of the Hindu community but impleading only the secretary of state for India through the district magistrate, Benares, and Anjuman Intajamia Masajid, Benares, for granting declaration that the land bearing situated in the city measuring (1 bigha 9 biswa and 6 dhurs) together with enclosure all-around described in the plaint was Waqf in possession of that plaintiff (Mohammed).

The affidavit has been filed in response to the plea of the committee of management Anjuman Intezamia Masjid which manages the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi seeking quashing of the recent survey of the mosque.

The affidavit said that the 1936 suit said that Muslims had the right to say their prayers especially alvida prayers, and to exercise other religious and legal rights as the need and occasion arise.

”It is submitted that the Muslims had filed the above-mentioned suit only for declaration without seeking any consequential relief.  This suit was filed even without impleading any person from the Hindu community. Therefore, the judgment passed in the suit is not binding upon any member of Hindu community but any document, map, evidence or statement of any witness can be referred to or relied upon by the members of Hindu community,” the affidavit said.