A Varanasi District Court has dismissed an application seeking the transfer of the original 1991 Gyanvapi suit from the court of the Civil Judge (Senior Division). The plea, filed by Manikuntala Tiwari and others, alleged that they were not properly heard in the proceedings.

However, District Judge Jay Prakash Tiwari found the application non-maintainable, stating that the petitioners lacked the requisite legal standing to seek a transfer of the case.

Advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi, a party in the ongoing litigation, confirmed that the court upheld the jurisdiction of the Civil Judge’s court over the decades-old and sensitive dispute involving the Gyanvapi mosque complex adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.

With this ruling, the 1991 suit will continue to be heard in the court where it has remained for over three decades.