Ayodhya issue: Don’t expect closure in court just yet

The expected judgments by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on September 24 may just be the start of another prolonged legal battle before the Supreme Court.

The high court will decide whether the suits filed by different groups are time barred. The suits are over the entitlement of the 2.77 acres of land where the Babri Masjid and a structure comprising Sita Ki Rasoi and Ram Chabutra (Sita’s kitchen and Ram platform) had stood till December 6, 1992, when a rampaging mob destroyed both the mosque and the structure.

The idols that were on the Ram Chabutra were then placed inside a makeshift temple where only a priest has been allowed to offer prayers while the general public is barred, as per a Supreme Court directive.

The high court bench will also adjudicate on whether there was a temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya prior to 1528, when the mosque was built. It will decide whether Muslims are entitled to the land title since they possessed the place for the past many decades.

On October 24, 1994, the Supreme Court had returned the Centre’s reference on Ayodhya wherein it had sought the court’s opinion on whether a mosque or a temple first existed at the site. The judges had refused to opine, saying this technical question could be decided only though proper dispensation in the cross suits, which the Union government had abated under the Acquisition of Certain Areas at Ayodhya Act, 1993. The suits were revived after this judgment.

In 1949, some Hindus had installed Ram idols in a part of the Babri mosque that they claimed was the sanctum sanctorum (where Lord Ram, they claimed, was born) and began offering prayers. The premises were then attached under the Criminal Procedure Code, and the disputed site locked up by the court. In January 1950, the trial court passed interim orders whereby the idols were not to be removed and worship of the same was to be allowed, but through the locked grill. 

Surprisingly, on February 1, 1986, the district judge ordered the opening of the grill lock and permitted the worship of the idols. That situation continued till the demolition in December 1992. On the other hand, at least since December 1949, Muslims have not been offering worship at the disputed site, though it may turn out at the trial of the suits, that they have every right to do so.

Incidentally, when the apex court asked the Union government’s counsel whether the demolished mosque would be reconstructed if it was held that there was no temple earlier, counsel’s reply was in the negative. Even if the suits regarding  ownership of the disputed land may complete the first leg of a journey that began 60 years ago, the cases against eight accused of inciting mobs continues slowly. The trial of LK Advani, MM Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, VH Dalmia, Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharti, and Sadhwi Ritambhara is being held at the CBI court in Rae Bareli, UP.