Gyanvapi mosque row: Varanasi Court says all seven cases of dispute to be heard together

Gyanvapi mosque case: Varanasi court on Tuesday consolidated seven applications moved before it seeking to transfer seven Gyanvapi-related suits pending before different courts to the court of the district judge. The hearing on the case is scheduled to take place today at 2 pm. 

District Judge AK Vishwesh, while exercising his special power, consolidated the cases, despite objections from the opposition, special advocate for Gyanvapi and Adi Vishweshwar cases Rajesh Mishra said.

The district judge, in his order, said if all these cases remain pending in different courts, there is a possibility that contradictory orders may be passed. Whereas if all these cases remain in one court, there will be no possibility of any contradictory judgment or order in all these cases, Mishra said.

Citing Order 4A of the CPC, the judge said it has been provided that when two or more cases are pending in the same court and the court is of the opinion that it is in the interest of justice, their joint hearing may be ordered, Mishra said.

The judge said in his order that it would be in the interest of justice that all these cases be heard together, he said.

The Muslim side on Monday filed its objection before the Varanasi district court to a petition seeking a direction to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to survey the entire Gyanvapi mosque complex.

Advocate Mohammad Tohid Khan, who appeared for the Muslim side, opposed the hearing of all the seven cases together stressing that the issues related to Gyanvapi had not yet reached the stage that a decision should be taken to hear them together.

As of now, the court should have seen the evidence of all the cases. Had the evidence been the same, then it would have been just to give such a verdict, Khan said.

Litigants in the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case -- Lakshmi Devi, Rekha Pathak, Sita Sahu and Manju Vyas -- had urged the court to hear the seven cases together.