A Varanasi court has issued notices on a petition that seeks the right to worship round the year at a temple that shares premises with a mosque and where prayers have been restricted since the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya.
The petition relating to the Shringar Gauri temple, moved by a little-known outfit that seeks to “liberate” Hindu shrines, appears aimed at opening a new flank in the Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath temple controversy.
The Shringar Gauri stands on the compound of Gyanvapi, which is adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath and, according to Sangh parivar outfits, was built after demolishing a part of the original Kashi Vishwanath temple.
On Thursday, the civil judge (senior division) issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government and the managements of the Kashi Vishwanath and Gyanvapi and asked the divisional commissioner to form a team of lawyers to advise the court.
The Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Gyanvapi mosque, separated by a wall, are open to the public but the Shringar Gauri was closed in 1992 after the Babri demolition to ensure peace. Since 1995, it’s opened for worship just once a year, on the fourth day of Chaitra Navratri.
Jitendra Singh Visen, head of the Delhi-based Vishva Vaidik Sanatan Sangh, who has moved the petition with five women residents of Varanasi city, wants the right to worship at the shrine “every day”.
“There used to be Ganesh and Hanuman idols at the Shringar Gauri temple. We want to know whether all the idols are intact and whether we can worship there every day like before,” Visen told reporters.
“Responses to the notices are to be filed by September 17, and the next hearing is on September 24.”