Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI:The Allahabad High Court on February 26 dismissed a petition challenging the Varanasi district court’s decision to allow Hindu prayers in a cellar of the Gyanvapi Mosque.
“Hindu Prayers in theVyas Tehkhana will continue,” Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said dismissing the mosque committee’s petition.
The Varanasi district court had last month ruled that a priest can offer prayers in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque called Vyas Tehkhana.
The District Court order was delivered on the petition of Shailendra Kumar Pathak, who said his maternal grandfather Somnath Vyas offered prayers till December 1993. Mr Pathak had requested that, as a hereditary pujari, he be allowed to enter the tehkhana and resume puja.
The mosque has four tehkhanas (cellars) in the basement, and one of them is still with the Vyas family.