The Supreme Court has directed the Gyanvapi mosque committee to approach the Allahabad High Court regarding a Varanasi district court’s order allowing a Hindu priest to perform prayers before idols in a cellar of the mosque. Lawyers for the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee sought an urgent hearing from the Supreme Court, but the registrar conveyed that Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had instructed them to approach the High Court.
The mosque committee contends that, under the guise of the order, the local administration has hastily deployed a large police force and is removing grills from the southern side of the mosque. The lawyers argue that this haste is intended to preempt the mosque committee’s attempts to challenge the order.