Ayodhya case: SC likely to hear petitions challenging a Allahabad HC judgement today

The Supreme Court of India likely to hear the petitions today challenging the judgement of 2010 Allahabad High Court in the disputed land of Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi, one of the most controversial political issue of the country.

A new constitution bench will be set up for the hearing of the petitions. The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph.

Earlier on 27th September, the Supreme Court declined to hear the observations in its 1994 judgement that a mosque is not integral in Islam and also opened the gate for the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute.

The decision was given by 2:1 by the apex court, which was headed by the former Chief Justice Dipak Misra. In the verdict, CJI also said that the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi decision will be decided on the basis of the evidence and also the previous verdict has no relevance to it.

The apex court had already said on 27th September that a civil suit on the land dispute would be heard by a three-judge bench on 29th October.

The issue of whether a mosque is an integral to Islam had come up when the bench was hearing the appeals filed against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgement. The bench comprised of three judges had ordered that the 2.77 acres of land should be divided equally among the three parties i.e. Ram Lalla, Suni Waqf Board and the Nirmohi Akhara.

The Babri Masjid was destroyed in 1992 after the lakhs of karsewaks or Right-wing volunteers had demanded to collapse it as they were demanded to built the Lord Ram temple there, who had born there only. Since then, the controversy turned to be the political issue.

The construction of the Ram temple was an important part of BJP’s manifesto ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and also the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections – both of which it won.

-With PTI inputs