A Varanasi court on Wednesday ruled that the Archaeological Survey of India survey report on the Gyanvapi mosque complex adjoining the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi will be given to both the Hindu and Muslim sides.
The court said the parties shall give an affidavit to keep the report with them and not make it public after getting the report.
The order to this effect was given by District Judge AK Vishvesh.
Following an order of the district court passed on July 21 last year, the ASI carried out the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi premises to determine whether the mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.
Madan Mohan Yadav, the counsel for the Hindu side, told PTI that the parties would acquire the survey report's copy on Thursday after submitting an application for the same.
After hearing the matter, Judge Vishvesh said, "I am of the view that the survey report prepared by ASI has been filed by ASI in the Court, both the parties to the suit must be provided copies of the survey report so that they can file objections against the ASI report."
"I am of the view that in the interest of justice, it is necessary that a copy of the survey report be provided to the parties to the suit," the judge said in the order.
The court also allowed Kashi Vishwanath temple trust, Varanasi DM and state's home secretary to get a copy of the ASI survey report, Hindu side counsel Yadav said.
The court passed the order on a petition filed by Rakhi Singh and others.
Earlier, a Hindu side lawyer had said that the court while allowing the parties to get a copy of the survey report also asked them to give an affidavit to keep the report with them and not make it public. However, a written order of the court did not mention it.
The counsel for the Gyanvapi mosque management committee, Mohd Tauhid, said they would acquire the copy of the survey report by submitting an application on Thursday.
Yadav said the ASI submitted its survey report to the fast track court of justice Prashant Singh after which the matter came to the district judge court who ordered to provide hard copies of the report to the parties.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the Muslim side pleaded in the district court that the survey report should be with the parties and not be made public.
The survey was ordered by the court after the Hindu petitioners claimed the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing temple.
The ASI had submitted its survey report to the district court in a sealed cover on December 18.
The ASI had on January 3 urged the court not to make its Gyanvapi complex survey report public for at least four more weeks, citing the December 19 judgment of the Allahabad high court ASI counsel Amit Shrivastava had told the district court that the high court had said in its order that, if necessary, the civil judge senior division fast track court can order a survey of the Gyanvapi complex once again.
Therefore, if the survey report comes into the public domain now, a situation of contradiction may arise. Therefore, four weeks should be given to open the survey report and make it available to the parties, the counsel had said.
The high court had on December 19 last year dismissed several pleas from the Muslim side challenging the maintainability of a suit seeking restoration of a temple where the Gyanvapi mosque now stands in Varanasi.
