Varanasi court grants ASI time till Nov 17 to submit Gyanvapi survey report
Accepting the request of the ASI, the court of Varanasi district judge A K Vishvesh gave 15 days’ time to it, said central government counsel Amit Srivastava
The court of the Varanasi district judge on Thursday granted additional 15 days’ time to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for submitting the report of scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises. The court granted time till November 17 on an application filed by the ASI.
Accepting the request of the ASI, the court of Varanasi district judge A K Vishvesh gave 15 days’ time to it, said central government counsel Amit Srivastava who had filed the application on behalf of the ASI.
The application read, “The ASI has completed scientific investigation/survey at the site. A team of archeologists, Archeological chemists, epigraphists, surveyors, photographers, and other technical persons have been engaged in analysing the data and writing the works conducted and their findings for submitting the report.”
“ASI needs some more time for preparing and submitting the survey report,” said Srivastava and added, “We prayed to the court to grant 15 days’ time to ASI for submitting the report.” The court gave time to the ASI till November 17 to submit the report, Srivastava added.
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On October 5, on an application by the ASI seeking time to complete the survey, the court had granted four weeks’ time to complete the survey work and submission of report.
Earlier 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 ordered the ASI to submit report up to September 2. 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.
