Kashi Vishwanath Temple was constructed by King Vikramaditya, who duly consecrated the idol of Lord Vishweshwar. The Temple was pulled down several times during Muslim Rule in the country. Besides the original temple of Lord Vishweshwar, there are four mandaps around the temple known as Mukti Mandap, Gyan Mandap, Aishwarya Mandap and Shringar Mandap. The original temple was first destroyed by Qutbuddin Aibak in 1193, and in its place, Razia mosque was erected. However, during the reign of Iltutmish, a Gujarati merchant rebuilt the temple again to be demolished by Hussain Shah Sharqi and Sikandar Lodhi.
Subsequently, the temple was rebuilt in the 16th century by priest Narayana Bhatta from Kashi. In 1669, Aurangzeb ordered demolition of the temple and the Gyanvapi structure was constructed in its place. The present Vishwanath temple was subsequently built in 1780 by Ahilyabai Holkar. Within the temple is a statue of Nandi, which ordinarily faces the shivling, and in this case, it faces the Gyanvapi structure thus denoting that the original Vishweshwara temple once stood in its place.
On October 15, 1991, a title suit was filed before Civil Judge, Varanasi seeking restoration of Gyanvapi land as a part of the Kashi temple, removal of Muslims from the complex area, and demolition of the mosque. In 1997, the Court initially decided that the suit was barred under the 1991 Act. However, the Hindu side filed a revision application, and the Varanasi District Judge in 1998 set aside the trial court order and directed that the suit had to be decided on merits. Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee approached the Allahabad High Court, asserting that the dispute between the temple and mosque could not be decided by a civil court as it was not permissible by the law, and on October 13, 1998 the High Court stayed the proceedings, which continued for 22 years, during which the issue remained in abeyance.
Following the decision of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya by the Supreme Court, in 2019, the matter saw a revival by a new petition filed by Vijay Shankar Rastogi in the Varanasi Court seeking an ASI survey of Gyanvapi premises to find out whether the mosque was built over an ancient Hindu temple. In 2020, plaintiffs approached Varanasi Civil Court citing a Supreme Court order of 2018 which said that a stay order had to be rectified every six months, and since it was not done in this case, the Civil Court agreed to reopen the case. In April 2021, Civil Judge Varanasi ordered the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi Complex. The said order was appealed against by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which was eventually stayed by the High Court.
In August 2021, five female devotees filed a petition in the Varanasi Court seeking permission to worship deities Hanuman, Nandi, and Shringar Gauri, inside the premises of Gyanvapi. In April 2022, the Varanasi court appointed an advocate commissioner and ordered a videography survey of the complex.The order was again challenged by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee in the High court, which upheld the order of the lower court. This time, the party also filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court.
In May 2022, the videographic survey of the Gyanvapi complex began and the Court appointed Senior Advocate Vishal Singh to supervise the survey. All the survey findings were submitted in a report to the court. On May 20, the case proceedings were transferred to a District Judge by the Supreme Court, and in July eventually said that it would intervene only after the District Judge had decided on the preliminary aspects of the case. On May 26, The Judge began hearing the maintainability petition of the case. On September 12, the Varanasi District Judge rejected the Waqf Board’s arguments that the Hindu women’s plea seeking permission to worship at the disputed site be dismissed.
In May 2023, the High Court ordered the determination of the age of the Shivling using modern technology. The same was however deferred by the Supreme Court one week later. On July 21, the Varanasi district court directed the ASI to conduct the survey to determine if the structure was built at a place where a temple existed earlier. On July 24, the Supreme Court halted ASI’s survey at premises till July 26, and asked the High Court to hear the mosque panel’s plea. On August 3, the High Court upheld the order and ruled that the step was “necessary in the interest of justice” and would benefit both the Hindu and Muslim sides in the dispute. Gyanvapi committee challenged the same in the Supreme Court which refused to stay the order.
On the same day, the ASI started the survey in the barricaded area of the Gyanvapi premises, excluding its sealed section. On December 18, the ASI submitted its scientific survey report on the Gyanvapi Mosque complex before the Varanasi District Court in a sealed cover. On December 19, the Allahabad High Court rejected all petitions by the mosque committee challenging civil suits that seek restoration of a temple at the mosque site on the ground that the same was not barred by Places of Worship Act, 1991. The High Court directed the Varanasi Court to complete hearing in the 1991 suit within six months.
Krishna Janmasthan Case
As per historian A W Entwistle, the first Vaishnava temple at the Krishna Janmasthan site was built in the 1st century AD, and a grander temple was constructed during the reign of Chandragupta II – Vikramaditya, around 400 AD. Mathura witnessed a series of attacks, plunders and destruction by Mahmud of Ghazni, and Sikandar Lodhi which resulted into destruction of the magnificent temple. In 1618, Raja Veer Singh Deo built a grand temple at the Janmasthan. Dara Shikoh ordered renovations to the site, including the installation of a stone railing around it. In 1660, Aurangzeb appointed Abdul Nabi Khan, who built the Jama Masjid at the location of the temple that had been destroyed by Sikandar Lodhi. In 1666, he destroyed the railing built by Dara Shikoh around the Keshavdev temple. In 1669, Aurangzeb issued a royal farmaan ordering the destruction of all Hindu schools and temples, across the Empire. The Kashi Vishwanath temple in Kashi was destroyed after the farmaan was issued. In 1670, he specifically ordered the destruction of Mathura’s Keshavdev temple, and sponsored the construction of the Shahi Idgah in its place.
By 1803, Mathura passed under the control of the British East India Company. In 1815, the Company auctioned 13.37 acres of land at the Katra Keshavdev site to Raja Patnimal from Varanasi. In 1944, the land was sold by his heirs to industrialist Jugal Kishore Birla who, in 1951, formed the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust to facilitate the construction of a temple at the site. The land was entrusted to the trust with a condition that it would never be sold or pledged. Subsequently, the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sangh was formed in 1956 to manage the affairs of the temple adjoining the land. Construction began in 1953 and came to be completed in 1983, when the temple took its present shape.
In 1964, the Sangh filed a plea seeking possession of the land on which the structure of Shahi Eidgah stands, and the restoration of the Krishna Janmasthan Temple. On October 12, 1968, a compromise was signed between the Sangh and the Shahi Eidgah Trust, wherein the Sangh agreed to relinquish its rights over the land in question, and allowed both places of worship to operate simultaneously. The suit was thus decided in terms of the compromise decree.
In 2017, another suit was filed in the Mathura District Court seeking the removal of the mosque and the restoration of the temple at the site. The suit was based on the grounds that the mosque was built on the site of a pre-existing temple, and therefore the mosque was illegally constructed.
Following the decision of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya by the Supreme Court, multiple petitions came to be filed before the Court in Mathura seeking survey of Shahi Idgah mosque and the removal of the mosque. The agreement was challenged on ground of collusion between the parties and the decree passed was stated to be sham and fraud. On September 30, 2020, Civil Judge, Mathura rejected the petition as non-admissible. Appeal was filed against the Order before the District Judge, Mathura. On May 19, 2022, the ruling was overturned by Mathura District Court. In the meanwhile, petitions and plaints continued to be filed before the Courts in the state.
In May 2023, the Allahabad High Court transferred to itself all matters related to the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute pending before the Mathura court. The order was challenged by the Idgah Committee before the Supreme Court.
On September 22, 2023, the Supreme Court rejected a plea seeking a scientific survey of the Krishna Janmabhoomi site’s Shahi Idgah mosque, however, it left the question open to be decided by the High Court.
Again on November 10, 2023, the Supreme Court noted that a total of 18 suits filed are to be tried by the High Court, and refused to suspend the ongoing proceedings before the High Court. Matter was directed to be next listed on January 9, 2024.
Few days back, on December 14, 2023, the Allahabad High Court allowed a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah and agreed to the appointment of an advocate commissioner to oversee the survey. The very next day, upon an oral mention by the Idgah Trust, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Allahabad High Court’s decision allowing a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah. As on date, the High Court’s order of court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah stands as law, and the outcome of the survey shal pave the way forward in the legal battle for resurrecting and reclaiming the original site of Shri Krishna Janmasthan.
