A court in Varanasi granted the Archaeological Survey of India eight more weeks to conduct the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises.

Allahabad High Court had asked the ASI on August 3 to continue surveying the area in keeping with the order of the Varanasi district court, which had asked the agency to submit a report on September 2. However, the ASI continued the survey after the due date and moved the local court for more time for submission of its report.

Rajesh Mishra, a government counsel, told reporters in Varanasi on Friday: “The court of district judge Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha extended the period of survey by eight more weeks. The court rejected the plea of the Anjuman Intezamia Committee that the ASI should be asked to withdraw from Gyanvapi after September 2.”

The committee is a management body of the mosque, which the Hindu litigants claim was built by demolishing a portion of the Kashi-Vishwanath temple during Aurangzeb’s time.

S.M. Yasin, joint secretary of the committee, had moved an application before Varanasi district magistrate S. Rajalingam last week, requesting him to ask the ASI to “stop the survey, which was illegal after the date fixed by the court lapsed”.

“We had told the district magistrate and also the court that the survey was in contravention of the court order after September 2, when the final report was to be submitted. The ASI had no order from any court after that date to continue its activities in the mosque,” he had said.

Yasin told reporters on Friday: “The court had asked the ASI to conduct the scientific survey by using GPS and warned that no part of the structure should be harmed. But the agency is digging the basement of the mosque and removing rubble from there."