A fresh application has been moved before a Varanasi fast-track court seeking an ASI survey of the entire Gyanvapi mosque area, including the wuzukhana and closed cellars under three domes and determine if the Mosque was built/super-imposed upon a Hindu Temple.

This application has been moved by Advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi, the next friend of Swayambhu Adi Vishweshwara (deity) in the suit filed by Rastogi himself in 1991 (on behalf of the deity) claiming the Muslim community had illegally occupied the disputed property (where Gyanvapi Mosque stands right now), as reported by LiveLaw.

For context, in the 1991 suit, an order has been sought to declare the structure as the property of Lord Visheshwara and devotees and to direct the defendants to remove their structure and hand over the possession of the property to the plaintiffs.

The application refers to the Varanasi Court's April 2021 order directing the Archaeological Survey of India to survey the disputed site of Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque. Notably, the Court, inter alia, primarily issued the following directions to the ASI:

• whether the religious structure standing at present at the disputed site is a superimposition, alteration or addition or there is structural overlapping of any kind, with or over, any other religious structure.

•The committee shall also trace as to whether any temple belonging to the Hindu community ever existed before the mosque in question was built or superimposed or added upon it at the disputed site.

• If so, then what exactly is the age, size, monumental and architectural design or style of the same, and also, as to which of the Hindu deity or deities the same was devoted to?

In effect, this order was later modified by the Allahabad High Court in December 2023 wherein it held that the 1991 suit is not barred by the Places of Worship Act 1991.