The survey started after the Allahabad High Court upheld the Varanasi court order.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has requested a court in Varanasi to give four weeks to make the 'scientific survey' report public in the Gyanvapi case. On December 18, 2023, the ASI submitted a sealed report to the district judge in Varanasi and it was unclear whether to make the report public.
The survey of the mosque premises, excluding the 'wazukhana' sealed by the Supreme Court, was ordered by the Varanasi court to check if the late 17th-century mosque was built over a Hindu temple.
The Muslim side is opposed to a public report, while the Hindu side is demanding that the report should be made public.
The ASI, in its application, said if the survey report is unsealed and disclosed in public before the submission of the copy in the survey report of the suit filed in 1991 seeking the "restoration" of a temple where the Gyanvapi mosque now stands in Varanasi was dismissed by Allahabad High Court, there is more chance of rumours being spread, which may affect the work of ASI.
The Allahabad High Court had on December 19 dismissed several pleas from Muslim sides challenging the maintainability of a suit seeking restoration of the temple where the Gyanvapi mosque now stands in Varanasi.
In its observation, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal had said the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 did not define religious character and this can only be determined through evidence presented in the court by opposing parties.
Right-wing groups claim a temple was demolished, by order of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, to make room for the mosque, which is adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
The survey started after the Allahabad High Court upheld the Varanasi court order. The High Court said the survey was "necessary in the interest of justice" and would benefit both sides in the dispute.
The Gyanvapi mosque committee then moved the Supreme Court against the High Court's order but, on August 4 last year, refused a stay; a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, however, directed the ASI to not carry out invasive acts, which ruled out excavations the Varanasi court had cleared.
The top court ordered non-invasive methods of survey and said certain areas - including a structure found in a video survey in April last year and claimed by petitioners as a 'shivling' - were off-limits.
This was after the mosque management committee claimed the ASI was digging in the basement and other places of the 354-year-old complex without permission, posing a risk it might collapse