On a day that the Supreme Court was set to hear the Ayodhya title suit, the Centre has filed a petition asking the top court to hand over the “excess” or non-disputed land (near the disputed site) to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas or the trust overlooking the Ram temple plan, as per NDTV reports.
Out of the 67 acres of land acquired by the government over 25 years ago, 2.7 acres of land are disputed. The Supreme Court had imposed status-quo on the entire land after the destruction in 1992 of the 16th century Babri Masjid that stood there. The masjid had been razed to ground by Hindu activists who held that it had been constructed at the site of a temple marking Lord Ram’s place of birth.
The government’s request to remove status-quo on the non-disputed land is especially significant considering that the Lok Sabha elections are just a few months away.
The hearing of the Ayodhya title suit could not take place today as Justice BA Bobde – one of the judges hearing the case was unavailable due to medical reasons. On Monday last, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had stated that the Ram Janmabhoomi case should be resolved quickly. Speaking to ANI, the law minister is quoted to have said that the Ayodhya case which is ‘pending for the last 70 years’ had been been resolved in ‘favour of the temple’ by the Allahabad High Court in 2010. He added that it is currently ‘on hold’ in the Supreme Court and that the matter must be resolved ‘without any delay’.
After Justice UU Lalit recused himself from the case stating that he had been a lawyer in a related case, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had reconstructed the five-judge Constitution bench hearing the case. Added last week were Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice Ashok Bhushan.
While right-wing groups some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies have been urging the government to bring forward an ordinance for the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that he is waiting for the judicial process to be completed.
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