ASI seeks 15 more days to submit Gyanvapi survey report
Standing government counsel Amit Srivastava, who filed the application on behalf of ASI, said, “We filed the application, urging the court to grant further 15 days time for completion and submission of the report.”
: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Friday filed an application in the court of the Varanasi district judge seeking a further 15 days’ time for submitting its report on the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque here. The court fixed November 18 (Saturday) for hearing the application.
“...The report of the survey is near about to complete. Only preparation of the report (of the survey) conducted by GPR is under process. It will take some more time for completion and submission of the survey report,” read the application by ASI.
Standing government counsel Amit Srivastava, who filed the application on behalf of ASI, said, “We filed the application, urging the court to grant further 15 days time for completion and submission of the report.”
The court fixed November 18 as the date of hearing, said Srivastava.
Akhlaque Ahmad, counsel for the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee that manages the Gyanvapi mosque, said that a copy of the application was received, they would study it and decide the further course of action.
Earlier on November 2, the court had granted 15 days’ time to ASI, directing it to submit the report by November 17.
Before that, on October 5, hearing an ASI application, the court had granted four weeks’ more time to complete the survey work and for submission of the report.
On August 5, the court of the Varanasi district judge had granted an additional four weeks to ASI to submit a report on the Gyanvapi mosque’s scientific survey that resumed amid tight security on August 4 after the Allahabad high court on August 3 vacated a stay and gave the go-ahead for the exercise.
The Varanasi court had initially ordered the survey on July 21 and asked for submission of the report by August 4.
In compliance with that order, the ASI had conducted the survey for over four-and-a-half hours on July 24 after which the Supreme Court the same day (July 24) halted the exercise till 5pm on July 26 and granted liberty to the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee to approach the Allahabad high court.
When the mosque committee moved the high court on July 25, it extended the stay on the survey. The high court gave its ruling on August 3 and allowed the exercise to go ahead. AIMC moved the Supreme Court against the high court order, but the top court refused to stay the survey on August 4.
