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Temple at the disputed site, mosque within Ayodhya, rules SC
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- A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday permitted the construction of a temple at the site where the Babri Masjid once stood, and asked the government to allot a “prominent and suitable” five acre plot for Muslims to construct a mosque in Ayodhya.
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- Members of the Bench: Chief Justice Gogoi, Justices S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer.
- Unanimous judgment:
(1) Centre to Formulate a scheme within 3 months and set up a trust to manage the property and construct a temple: Centre had acquired the entire 67.73 acres of land including 2.77 acres of disputed Ramjanmabhoomi- Babri Masjid premises in 1993.
(2) Possession of the disputed property would continue to vest with the Centre, until a notification is issued by it investing the property in the trust.
(3) Directed that the Sunni Central Waqf Board should be given a five-acre plot, either by the Centre from within its acquired area, or by the Uttar Pradesh government “at a suitable, prominent place in Ayodhya”. The Board would be at liberty to construct a mosque there.
(4) The two processes should be done simultaneously with the transfer of the property to the proposed trust.
(5) The judges declared that the demolition of the 16th century Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, was “an egregious violation of the rule of law” and “a calculated act of destroying a place of public worship”.
(6) The Muslims have been wrongly deprived of a mosque which had been constructed well over 450 years ago, the Bench said.
(7) The court referred to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits the conversion of the status of any place of worship, to say that all religions are equal.
(8) The Constitution does not make a distinction between the faith and belief of one religion and another. All forms of belief, worship and prayer are equal.
(9) The court concluded that the Muslims were ousted from the 1,500 square yards of the mosque through acts of damage during communal riots in 1934, desecration in the intervening night of December 22-23, 1949, when idols were placed inside the mosque, and finally, the demolition of the mosque in 1992.
- Other excerpts from the judgement:
(1) This court in the exercise of its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution must ensure that a wrong committed must be remedied.
(2) Justice would not prevail if the Court were to overlook the entitlement of the Muslims who have been deprived of the structure of mosque through means which should not have been employed in a secular nation committed to the rule of law.
(3) Allahabad HC’s Remedy defied Logic: The Supreme Court said three-way bifurcation of the disputed premises among the Ayodhya deity, Sri Bhagwan Ram Virajman, Nirmohi Akhara and the Sunni Central Waqf
Sources
The Hindu