The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad high court, hearing the Ayodhya title suits, on Thursday directed the Archaelogical Survey of India to fill up all the remaining trenches at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

A Special Bench comprising Justice S R Alam, Justice Bhanwar Singh and Justice O P Srivastava, while passing the order, directed the concerned officials to lend all possible assistance to the ASI in the work.

The court said all the trenches should be filled with river sand after spreading alkathene/polythene sheets of good quality up to the lowest level.

It also directed the ASI to file a compliance report in the court on the next date of hearing fixed for February 19.

The ASI had undertaken excavation at the site on the direction of the court to ascertain whether a temple existed at the site prior to the construction of the mosque.