On Thursday (April 5), the Allahabad High Court reprimanded [pdf] the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for the delay in giving her opinion about the feasibility of carbon dating of Shivling found inside the Gyanvapi mosque.
The matter came up for hearing before Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra-I. He noted that the ASI exceeded the last date for submitting its report, which has in turn hampered the proceedings of the court.
“Certainly this lethargic attitude on the part of the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India is highly deplorable and such practice must be deprecated. The desired report has not been submitted though directed since last November 2022,” the Allahabad High Court observed.
It further added, “A high authority holding post of Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, controlling particular administration all over the country must know seriousness of the matter and ought to respect the orders of the Court, primarily of higher Courts.”
“Things cannot be kept pending for long when the matter has the element of high publicity all over the country. This Court will not permit any authority to occasion delay on the pretext of the submission of the desired report,” the court reprimanded the ASI Director-General.
Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra -I has now extended the last date for submitting the desired report to April 17, 2023.
The timeline of the case
Following the discovery of Shivling inside the premises of Gyanvapi Mosque on May 16, 2022, the Supreme Court of India directed the Varanasi district magistrate to protect the sacred structure.
On October 14, 2022, the Varanasi district court turned down the petition of the Hindu side, which demanded a scientific evaluation of the Shivling (citing the Supreme Court interim verdict).
A revision petition by one Laxmi Devi and three others was filed before the Allahabad High Court, challenging the verdict of the Varanasi District Court. The petitioners had demanded a scientific evaluation of the Shivling through Carbon Dating, excavation and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).
On November 21, 2022, the court directed the ASI Director General to give her opinion about the feasibility of such an exercise.
It stated, “…whether investigation of the structure found at site, subject matter of Original Suit No.18 of 2022 if examined through the methods of Carbon Dating, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Excavation and other methods adopted to determine its age, nature and other relevant information is likely to damage it or a safe evaluation about its age can be done.”
Since November last year, the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India had been delaying filing a response to the court’s query. On March 20, 2023, the High Court gave an ultimatum to the ASI to file its response on or before April 5 (which has now been extended to April 17, 2023).