The court agreed to list the case for hearing on April 14. The plea was mentioned on Thursday before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud, who asked the Muslim parties to file an interlocutory application.
Last month, a plea was moved before the court seeking to consolidate all suits pertaining to the dispute that are currently pending before a Varanasi court.
In the plea, filed by the Hindu side, it was argued that the Varanasi court has deferred five times the decision on a plea seeking clubbing of all civil suits pertaining to the dispute. The counsel for the Hindu parties had argued that the Varanasi court was not passing an order on the issue.
The Supreme Court bench had agreed to take up the matter later this month.
On November 11 last year, the top court had extended its May 17 order protecting the object found during a survey conducted at the Gyanvapi mosque, which is claimed by some people to be a ‘Shivling’. A bench headed by the CJI had ordered that the interim protection shall continue to remain in operation till further orders. The court on May 17 last year had ordered that the object claimed to have been found during the survey of the mosque be protected.
In October last year, a Varanasi court had rejected a plea filed by the Hindu parties seeking directions to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific investigation to ascertain whether the object found during the survey is a Shivling or a fountain.An appeal was filed against the order in the Allahabad High Court. The high court had in October last year directed the Director General of ASI to furnish his opinion on whether carbon dating, ground penetrating radar (GPR), excavation and other methods to determine the age of the disputed object at Gyanvapi mosque would damage the object.
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