An Indian court in northern Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi district pronounced its verdict on Monday admitting the plea of the five Hindu women seeking the right to worship inside the city’s Gyanvapi mosque, located next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple.

Delivering the verdict, a single bench of district Judge AK Vishvesh said that plea in the Gyanvapi-Shrinagar Gauri dispute case is maintainable.

The district order ruled that the suit filed by the Hindu Worshippers is not barred by The Places of Worship Act or the Waqf Act.

The Varanasi court will now further hear the suit of the Hindu worshippers.

“The court rejected the Muslim side’s petition and said the suit is maintainable. The next hearing of the case is on Sep 22,” advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi mosque case, told reporters.

The plaintiffs, Hindu women worshippers, had sought a right to worship Goddess Shringar Gauri on the outer wall of the mosque complex located next to the Kashi temple.

The maintainability of that suit was challenged by the Anjuman Committee, which manages Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, arguing that their plea is barred by the Places of Worship Act, 1991.

The Hindu worshippers have claimed that the present mosque premises was once a Hindu temple and it was demolished by Mughal Ruler Aurangzeb upon which the present mosque structure was built.

The Anjuman Masjid committee, on the other hand, objected to their plea citing Order 7, Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) which questions the maintainability of the suit filed by the plaintiffs and the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

Order 7, Rule 1 of the CPC states that the court, even before hearing the case on merit, needs to first decide if there is a ‘cause of action’ and consider whether the reliefs sought in the plaint – meaning, the petition filed by the party who has approached the court – can be granted or not.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE