<div><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Puja will start within seven days. Everyone will have the right to perform Puja, Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer representing the Hindu side, said</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>A Varanasi district court on Wednesday allowed the Hindu side to offer prayers in the southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque.</div><div><br></div><div>The court directed the Varanasi district magistrate to make arrangements for pooja to be performed by the Hindu side and a poojari nominated by Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust.</div><div><br></div><div>On January 17, the Varanasi district court appointed the district magistrate as the receiver, directing him to keep the cellar safe and not allow any change in it.</div><div><br></div><div>On January 24, a district administration team led by additional district magistrate Prakash Chandra completed the proceedings in connection with the DM becoming the receiver of the cellar and taking it into his custody.</div><div><br></div><div>“Puja will start within seven days. Everyone will have the right to perform Puja,” Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer representing the Hindu side, said.</div><div><br></div><div>Muslim side to appeal in high court</div><div>Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee's counsel Akhlaque Ahmad said that he would challenge the order in the higher court. The court has fixed February 8 as date of hearing on an application by the mosque committee saying that the plea should be dismissed.</div><div><br></div><div>“The cellar is a part of the Gyanvapi mosque. So worship could not be performed. Therefore, pooja should not be allowed," Ahmad told HT.</div><div><br></div><div>The district court's order comes a day after four Hindu women moved the Supreme Court seeking excavation and scientific survey of a sealed section of the mosque, this after an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report concluded that a large Hindu temple existed before the construction of the mosque. According to Hindustan Times reports&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>