New Delhi: The Chief Justice of the Allahabad high court has withdrawn cases related to the challenge over the Gyanvapi Mosque, which is adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, from the current bench, citing judicial propriety and discipline.Indian Express has reported on an administrative order, dated August 11, in which Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker has called for the withdrawal of cases from the single-judge bench of Justice Prakash Padia. CJ Diwaker cited this order again on August 28.He also called for the fresh nomination of a bench.The site of the Gyanvapi Mosque has been a space of communal politics since before five Hindu women moved a Varanasi court in August 2021 seeking permission to worship an image of Maa Shringar Gauri located on the back wall of the Gyanvapi mosque. They also sought permission to worship all the “visible and invisible” deities within the mosque and old temple complex.According to the temple side litigants, the mosque was built on the site of the original Kashi Vishwanath temple. The mosque’s litigants have maintained that the mosque was built on Waqf premises, and that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 barred changing the character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.The Chief Justice’s order notes that the cases were heard on January 18, 2021, by the court, and on several following dates. Judgment was reserved on the matter on March 15, 2021, but was not delivered.“The cases nevertheless continued to be listed before the same court even after the concerned learned Single Judge ceased to have jurisdiction in the matter as per roster,” the Chief Justice’s order said.The order further says that the facts of this case point to “a more troubled scenario of procedural aberration.”The Chief Justice says that procedure was not observed on these cases, where despite passing of successive orders for reserving judgment, cases were listed once again with the same judge “without allowing the parent section in the office to have access to the records of these cases”.It was “this concern of propriety” which “compelled” the Chief Justice to pass orders on the administrative side on August 11, the Express report noted.The registry, the Chief Justice said in his latest August 28 order, has further clarified that the records of these cases were never sent to the parent section for due process to be followed.“As per the registry, the parent section responsible for listing of the cases before the Court had no access to the records of the cases as the files were never sent to the registry,” the Chief Justice said.Observance of procedure instils faith in the justice dispensation system, the judge added, noting that a judge is expected to decided cases before them.