Thread by @LawBeatInd

🚨Allahabad High Court continues hearing Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque dispute case(s).
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Matter is being heard before the bench of Justice Prakash Padia.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

On the last date of hearing, Adv. VS Rastogi, the appointed next friend of Lord Vishweshwar, had said that the "dispute is not a dispute of property simplicitor but it is a national dispute with emotions of millions of people attached to it."
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Hearing commences.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Adv. VS Rastogi (the appointed next friend of Lord Vishweshwar) continues his submission regarding the non-applicability of the Waqf Act, 1966 on the disputed property.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Rastogi submits that in the affidavit filed on behalf of the U.P Sunni Central Waqf Board, there are discrepancies pertaining to the registration of the property as waqf property.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Rastogi points out that at one place it shows that the property was registered as waqf property on February 26, 1944, under the Waqf Act of 1936...
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

...however, at another place the same appears to have been registered under the Wakf Act, 1954 and at a third place, the same has been shown registered under the Uttar Pradesh Muslim Waqfs Act, 1960.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Rastogi argues that the Waqf Board has stated three different things and three different places in its affidavit.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Adv. Punit Kumar Gupta appearing for the U.P Sunni Central Waqf Board counters that as the old Acts were amended from time to time, the renewal of registration was done accordingly, which is why different Acts are mentioned.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Rastogi continues his argument and says that the property was always a Hindu property as the land belongs to 'swayambhu' (self-manifested) Lord Vishweshwar and #Aurangzeb had no right to acquire the land.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

To this Gupta says that it is the State which had conducted the survey and had determined that the property was a waqf property.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Gupta submits that in the years 1936, 1954, and 1960 the disputed property was identified as waqf property.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Rastogi counters this by referring to a 2013 judgment of the Apex Court wherein it was held that if any property is attached as the waqf property and no notice is issued first to the previous owner/claimant, the same cannot be registered as waqf property.
#kashi #mosque #temple

Rastogi further submits that to prove that the land belongs to Lord Vishweshar, the needed evidence can be procured only through an ASI survey.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Referring to the Ramjanmbhoomi case, Rastogi says that in the instant matter too, the evidence lies beneath the mosque structure.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

He also says that it is for the Waqf Board to bring all the evidence pertaining to State surveys wherein allegedly the property was declared as waqf property, on record if they want to prove their claim.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

To this, Court says that all documentary evidence should come on record.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Hearing adjourned till April 29. Rastogi to continue his argument on the next date.
#kashi #mosque #temple #Varanasi #kashivishwanath

Adv. Rastogi, the appointed next friend of Lord Vishweshwar, today argued that the land in question belongs to the 'Swayambhu' Lord Vishweshwar since always, therefore, Aurangzeb never had any right over it.
@ISalilTiwari reports
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