Today is a critical decision in the Gyanvapi Mosque case in Varanasi.

The seniormost court in Varanasi is expected to rule today on whether a case filed by five Hindu women seeking the right to worship inside the city’s Gyanvapi mosque, next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple, is “maintainable.”

District judge AK Vishvesha is expected to rule on whether the women’s case, which resulted in a survey inside the Gyanvapi mosque, will be heard further or whether it will be dismissed.

“Keeping the complexity and sensitivity of the matter in mind,” the Supreme Court said, “the civil suit before the civil judge in Varanasi shall be heard before a senior and experienced judicial officer of the UP judicial service.”

The Varanasi civil court had ordered filming of the Gyanvapi mosque a month before the Supreme Court’s intervention in the case, based on a petition by Hindu women who claim there are idols of Hindu Gods and goddesses in the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

A report on the filming at the mosque was then sealed and delivered to the Varanasi court, but the Hindu petitioners controversially released details just hours later.

According to the report, a “Shivling” was discovered in a pond within the mosque complex that was used for “Wazoo,” or purification rituals before Muslim prayers. The judge hearing the case at the time ordered the pond to be sealed.

The Gyanvapi mosque committee challenged the filming inside the centuries-old mosque in the Supreme Court.

According to the petitioners, the filming violates the Places of Worship Act of 1991, which preserves the religious status of any place of worship as of August 15, 1947.