Plea for additional survey at Gyanvapi complex which was rejected by court was not filed by us, clarifies advocate of the main petitioners in the case

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain said that a similar plea from their side for additional archaeological survey is already pending with the Supreme Court of India

A day after a Varanasi Court dismissed a plea for an additional survey at the Gyanvapi complex, it has been revealed that the petition was filed by a different party, not the devotees who were successful in getting a survey of the site done by ASI. Vishnu Shankar Jain, the advocate in the petition said on X that the application which was rejected yesterday was not filed by them.

Advocate Jain further said that a similar plea from their side for additional archaeological survey is already pending with the Supreme Court of India. He further added, “The proper forum for filing this application is SC. Order passed by civil judge Varanasi does not impact our case at all.”

Notably, the application rejected by the Varanasi court was filed by Advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi, acting as the next friend of Lord Vishweshwar in the case. He had filed the plea in the Fast Track court seeking an order for ASI to conduct an extensive survey of the entire Gyanvapi complex.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) conducted a survey of the Gyanvapi complex last year, the report of which was published in January this year. The report said that the study and survey of the structure strongly suggests the existence of a substantial Hindu temple structure at the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

The ASI survey was the result of a petition filed by five women, who petitioned to be allowed to pray at the ‘Shringar Gauri Sthal’ inside the Gyanvapi complex. After the publication of the survey report, they have already applied for Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of the rest of the basements in the mosque premises, which were not included in the first survey.