Following the petition seeking carbon dating, the Varanasi District Court asked the Gyanvapi Mosque management to file its objections to it which will be taken up in the next hearing of the case on September 29.?

Five Hindu women have filed a petition seeking rights for daily prayers before the idols on the outer walls of the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi. During the initial hearing of the case, a Varanasi court —from where the case was later transferred to District Court— ordered videography survey of the mosque compound. It was claimed that a 'Shivling' was found close to the "wazookhana" —a small reservoir used by Muslims to perform ritual ablutions before offering namaz— in the mosque premises. It is this 'Shivling' whose carbon dating has now been sought.

Carbon dating is a scientific process to assign age to an object. It is frequently used to assign age to archaeological finds.

Appearing on behalf of petitioner women, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain placed the demand for carbon-dating of the "Shivling" before the court. The judge asked the mosque management to file its objections to the plea and fixed September 29 as the next date of hearing in the matter, district government advocate Rana Sanjeev Singh said.

The court did not entertain the mosque management's plea for fixing the next hearing eight weeks after the last date of hearing in the matter on September 12, he added.

Earlier on September 12, the court had ruled that the petition of Hindu devotees in the Gyanvapi Mosque case is maintainable, rejecting the challenge to the petition by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee. The Muslim petitioners had challeged the maintainability of the Hindu petitioners' plea, arguing that it was not maintainable under the Places of Worship Act 1991 which prohibits conversion of any place of worship and mandates the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.

A total of 15 people had submitted applications in the court to become parties to the dispute. The judge said the applications of only eight people, who were present before the court, will be considered, Singh said.

The Gyanvapi Mosque is located next to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath temple and the case revived claims that the mosque was built on a portion of the Hindu structure demolished on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

The Supreme Court had directed the district court to first decide on the maintainability of the case filed by the five Hindu women, seeking permission to offer daily prayers before the idols of Shringar Gauri.

(With PTI inputs)