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Will decide on early hearing in Babri Masjid dispute case: SC

-- 21 July,2017

New Delhi, July 21
The vexed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue appears to be heading for a judicial adjudication as the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to list for hearing appeals against the Allahabad High Court’s 2010 verdict dividing the 2.7-acre disputed land equally between Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and Sunni Wakf Board.
“We are going to list the main matter soon. We will take a decision on it,” a bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar told BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who mentioned the matter for urgent listing.
Swamy–an intervenor in the case–said the appeals were pending for the last seven years and they needed to be heard urgently. He said his petition for enforcement of his right to worship without much hassle at the makeshift temple, too, was pending.
He demanded expeditious disposal of all these cases.

The Supreme Court had on March 31 declined Swamy’s plea to urgently hear the Ayodhya land dispute and had questioned his locus standi in the matter.
“See the media which falsely spread the news till now that I was not a party in the Ram Temple petition in SC are chasing me now for byte,” Swamy tweeted after the hearing.
He also tweeted that the Additional Advovate General of UP was present in the court and supported him on instruction from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath but the Union of India was nowhere to be seen.
Uttar Pradesh Sunni Wakf Board and Iqbal Ansari–son of late Hashim Ansari who had been litigating on the Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid issue for long–had then objected to Swamy mentioning the matter for urgent hearing without informing the parties to the title suit.
Following mentioning of the matter by Swamy for urgent hearing on March 21, the CJI had offered to play a mediator to solve the contentious issue if parties agreed to it, saying a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute was a better option.
“Any person of your choice…You want me to mediate…but I will not hear it (on the judicial side). You want my brother judges (Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice SK Kaul)…There are no issues…You all sit together across the table and decide,: the CJI had told Swamy on March 21.
The CJI had, however, said if he mediated in the dispute, he would not hear the case on the judicial side.
The top court is seized of appeals against the September 30, 2010 judgment of the high court that ordered partition of the suit property between Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhada and Sunni Wakf Board.
Swamy had told the bench that the Centre had in an affidavit filed in 1994 said that it would hand over the disputed land for construction of temple if it was proved that the Babri Masjid was built on a pre-existing temple. He said it had been proved by the Archeological Survey of India and the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had accepted it. He had suggested that the mosque could be constructed across the Saryu.
Hindus believe that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya thousands of years ago; during Mughal emperor Babar’s rule, a mosque was constructed at the place in 1528 after destroying the temples existing there.
The RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and BJP have been running a campaign for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. On December 6, 1992, kar sevaks of right wing Hindu organisations demolished the disputed structure. Many BJP leaders, including LK Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi, are facing a criminal case in connection with the demolition.
But the civil dispute over 2.7 acres is a separate one that has been on since 1961 when the Sunni Wakf Board took the matter to court.

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