PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court will deliver its judgment on August 3 on a petition filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid (AIM) challenging the Varanasi district court’s July 21, 2023, order by which it had directed the ASI to survey the Gyanvapi complex.

Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker reserved judgment on Thursday after hearing counsels for both parties. The court said the Supreme Court stay order on an ASI survey will remain in force till judgment is delivered.
When the hearing started on Thursday, Archaeological Survey of India additional director Alok Tripathi informed the court there would be no digging at the Gyanvapi site.

Appearing on behalf of the UP government, advocate general Ajai Kumar Misra said the state was there to maintain law and order and had nothing to do with the survey.
Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, the counsel for the four women on whose petition the district judge ordered the ASI survey, submitted that an ASI survey was necessary to bring the issue to a logical conclusion. He also showed photographs of the western side of the mosque which, he claimed, show the existence of shrines of Hindu worship and other Hindu symbols.
Earlier, AIM lawyer SFA Naqvi said, “The court cannot be used to collect evidence by sending a commission to do it when the applicant had no evidence in support of his case.”
Jain replied: “The existence and non-existence of the deities is a matter of evidence. To secure evidence, which is there, and parties are not in a position to produce (it) themselves, a court can order a commission to collect such evidence and the commission will collect it in this regard.”
Advocate SFA Naqvi said: “We have attached photos of various digging equipment, which ASI was carrying when it reached the mosque premises. It shows that they had intentions of digging (at) the spot.” At this, the chief justice said though they were carrying equipment, this did not show that they intended to dig.
Later, ASI additional director Alok Tripathi clarified that when they visited the mosque site for the first time they had carried some equipment but that was not for digging but to remove debris on the site.