A PIL was filed in the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday seeking the establishment of a committee headed by a retired or sitting judge of the Supreme Court or a high court to ascertain the truth regarding a structure recently found in the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi.
The public interest litigation (PIL), filed in the Lucknow bench of the high court, is likely to come up for hearing before a vacation bench of Justices Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Subhash Vidyarthi on June 9.
The petition has been filed by Sudhir Singh, Ravi Mishra, Mahant Balak Das, Shivendra Pratap Singh, Markendey Tiwari, Rajiv Rai and Atul Kumar claiming themselves to be devotees of Lord Shiva.
The petitioners have made the central government, the Uttar Pradesh government and the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) as opposite parties in the matter.
The Hindu side has claimed that a Shivling was found during a videography survey of the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri complex last month.
The claim was disputed by the mosque committee members who said it was part of the water fountain mechanism in the wazookhana reservoir, used by devotees to perform ritual ablutions before offering namaz.
The petitioners said that the matter has been leading to disputes between communities not only within the country but across the world.
They said the disputes could have been avoided if the ASI and the governments had discharged their responsibility by appointing a committee to ascertain the truth regarding the structure.
The petitioners have requested the high court to direct the ASI and the governments to appoint a committee to be headed by a retired or sitting judge of the Supreme Court or a high court to find out the truth about the structure.