The Supreme Court of India has dismissed a plea by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC) against the transfer of the Gyanvapi mosque case from one bench to another within the Allahabad High Court. The bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, succinctly concluded the matter with the word “Dismissed,” after hearing the submissions of senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, who represented the mosque committee.
The AIMC’s plea challenged the decision of the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice to withdraw the case from a single-judge bench that had been hearing it since 2021. The bench was set to pronounce its judgment on August 25, the same day the case was reassigned by an administrative decision to a bench headed by Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker, citing a change in the roster.
Senior Advocate Ahmadi argued that the transfer amounted to an “abuse of judicial process,” given that the single judge had been hearing the case for a considerable time. The Supreme Court bench, however, underscored the discretionary power of the high court’s chief justice, stating,
“We should not interfere with the order of the chief justice of the high court…In high courts, it is a very standard practice. This must lie in the realm of the chief justice of the high court.”
The Chief Justice of India, referring to the high court chief justice’s order, noted,
“Look at what the learned Chief Justice said in the last three lines…we do not want to read it in open court. This is extraordinary. Never happened. We will leave it at that. I don’t want to say much…”
This remark alluded to the unusual circumstance of the case files being retained in the judge’s chamber and never sent back to the high court registry, an issue the CJI did not wish to elaborate on in public.
The AIMC had also informed the high court that it had filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court against the order of the high court’s chief justice. The high court chief justice, in the order dated September 18, 2023, justified the transfer decision, stating it was taken on the administrative side in the
“interest of judicial propriety, judicial discipline, and transparency in the listing of cases.”
The case also involves a Varanasi court’s direction to the ASI to conduct a comprehensive survey of the Gyanvapi mosque. The ASI was granted time until November 17 to submit its survey report, despite having completed the survey, as it needed more time to draft the report.
This latest judgment from the Supreme Court reaffirms the high court’s autonomy in administrative matters and highlights the judiciary’s internal mechanisms for ensuring judicial propriety and discipline. The Gyanvapi mosque case continues to be a focal point of legal and historical discourse in India.
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