ASI report to be given to both sides in Gyanvapi case: Court

A Varanasi district court, on Wednesday, agreed to make the Archaeological Survey of India's (ASI) scientific survey report on the Gyanvapi Mosque complex available to both the Hindu and the Muslim sides. The concerned parties will have to submit an affidavit in this regard.

The development comes over a month after the ASI submitted its report on the Gyanvapi mosque complex before the district court in a sealed cover on 18 December.

After the report was submitted in the court, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi survey case, filed a petition before the court to make the ASI report public, arguing that the report "cannot be filed in a sealed cover".

However, the ASI had sought the postponement of the release of its Gyanvapi survey report to the public domain. The panel had urged a Varanasi district judge to delay the disclosure, fearing that the report's content to the public would be inappropriate and fuel rumours and misinformation.

The ASI carried out a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi premises, located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, to determine whether the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

The survey had begun after the Allahabad High Court upheld the Varanasi district court order and ruled that the step was "necessary in the interest of justice" and would benefit both the Hindu and Muslim sides in the dispute.

After the Allahabad High Court order, the Gyanvapi committee moved the Supreme Court against the order. The Supreme Court had, in August last year, refused to stay the high court's order on the ASI survey.