Varanasi, May 9 (PTI) A Varanasi court on Monday began hearing the Gyanvapi mosque management committee's plea to change the court commissioner appointed to conduct a videographic survey of the mosque adjacent to the Shringar Gauri temple here.

Advocate Ajay Kumar Mishra, who was appointed by the court as its commissioner, too pleaded for more time to complete the court-mandated survey at the Shringar Gauri temple-Gyanvapi mosque complex.

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After hearing inconclusive arguments from the two sides, Varanasi's Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar listed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

Judge Diwakar had ordered the survey earlier on a plea by five Delghi women seeking the court's permission to perform daily worships of idols of some deities located on the western wall of the mosque.

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The mosque management committee, represented by advocate Abhay Nath Yadav, has approached the court for the appointment of another advocate as the court commissioner, accusing the present one of favouring Hindu petitioners in his court-mandated task.

Court commissioner Mishra and lawyers representing both the Hindu and Muslim sides had on Saturday gone inside the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri temple complex.

Despite spending nearly two hours inside the complex, they had not been able to accomplish the work and had to come out of the complex.

Counsel Vishnu Jain, representing the five Delhi women, too had gone inside the complex with Mishra on Saturday.

After emerging from there, he had told reporters that men present inside the mosque did not allow the survey team to enter the mosque area to do the survey.

He had also accused the district administration of not helping the court commissioner's team in entering the mosque.

Jain had said they would apprise the court on Monday of the opposition to the court-mandated task of the mosque complex and seek a specific order to carry out the videography and survey of the Gyanvapi mosque.

The videographic survey of the mosque was ordered earlier by Judge Diwakar on a plea by Delhi women Rakhi Singh, Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu and others seeking permission to perform daily worship of deities Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesha, Lord Hanuman and Nandi whose idols are located on the outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque.

They had moved the court with their plea on April 18, 2021, and had also sought the court's order to stop the opponents from causing any damage to the idols.

The counsel for the mosque management committee (Anjuman Intezamiya Masajid), Yadav had earlier contended that the court had not given any order to do the videography inside the mosque but to do it only till the 'chabutra' (courtyard) outside the barricades enclosing the mosque area.

The court commissioner had on Friday conducted an inclonclusive survey of some areas outside Gyanvapi Masjid in the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex amid brief sloganeering by two sides.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)