In the latest development in the Gyanvapi Mosque case, the Masjid Intezamia Committee has filed a revision petition in Allahabad High Court against Varanasi District Court's order allowing Hindus to perform prayers inside the southern celler of the mosque.
The Muslim committee has sought a stay on the Varanasi court order.
Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee counsel SFA Naqvi said they have requested an urgent hearing.
The Varanasi district court had ruled that a priest can perform prayers before the idols in a cellar of the Gyanvapi Masjid.
Following the court order, prayers were performed in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque on Wednesday.
"Vyas ji's cellar was opened after 31 years for prayers," temple trust president Nagendra Pandey said.
The southern cellar was opened at around 10.30 pm on Wednesday, he added.
The mosque has four 'tahkhanas' (cellars) in the basement, of which one is still in the possession of the Vyas family, who used to live there. Vyas had petitioned that, as a hereditary pujari, he be allowed to enter the tahkhana and resume pooja.
According to a report by the PTI news agency, the district administration said at around 9.30 pm on Wednesday, the members of the Kashi-Vishwanath temple trust were called and the barricades before the Nandi statue facing the mosque's 'wazukhana' were removed.
The court had directed the local administration to make arrangements within seven days for prayers in the cellar.
Last week, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) claimed that a 17th-century mosque in one of Hinduism's holiest cities was built after destroying a Hindu temple that existed there.
The report said that the pre-existing structure appears to have been destroyed during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and part of it was modified and reused in the existing structure.
