Gyanvapi ‘Shivling’: HC Gives ASI One Last Chance to Clarify Whether Carbon Dating Will Damage Object

GG News Bureau

Prayagraj, 22nd March. The Allahabad High Court has given the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) until April 5 to file its response clarifying whether the carbon dating process will damage an object claimed to be a “Shivling” found inside the Gyanvapi mosque or whether a safe evaluation of its age can be done.

The Hindu petitioners claim the object is a “Shivling.” The Muslim side, which claimed the object was part of a “fountain,” refuted the claim.

The court expressed its displeasure with the ASI for failing to file a response despite being given eight months.

The next hearing is scheduled for April 5th.

The petitioners, Laxmi Devi and three others, filed the current civil revision petition in response to a Varanasi court order that denied the demand for carbon dating and scientific determination of the purported ‘Shivling’ found during a court-ordered survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises on May 16, 2022.

When the case was heard on Monday, the ASI’s counsel requested more time to file its response, claiming that the ASI needed advice from other agencies as well.

Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra expressed his displeasure with the delay in filing a response, saying, “The time extension application has already been given in the garb of obtaining advice from other agencies. Further time should not be sought by the ASI, as the ASI may take advice as it thinks appropriate by embarking upon a process which would expedite the matter. It should not be allowed to go on any further from April 5, 2023.”

The court also ordered the trial court in Varanasi, where the case is currently pending, to set the trial date after April 5.

The petitioners have challenged the Varanasi court’s order of October 14 last year, rejecting Hindu worshippers’ plea for conducting a scientific probe of the ‘Shivling’.

Carbon dating is a technique for determining the age of extremely old objects by measuring the amounts of various forms of carbon in them.