By- Desher Samay: In an unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court on Saturday held that the entire disputed land of 2.77 acres in Ayodhya must be handed over for the constrution of Ram mandir .
The Supreme Court has delivered its verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi–Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya, marking another chapter in a centuries-old religious dispute that is the country’s most politically divisive row.
The case, which has spanned centuries of religious history and languished in the legal system for almost seven decades, has finally seen a closure, as a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi pronounced its verdict.
In a unanimous judgment, the Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has ordered that a temple must be constructed at the disputed site and the Muslims must be compensated with five acres of land at a prominent place in Ayodhya. The court also ordered the Central government to formulate a scheme within three months to implement this order.
Thousands of paramilitary force members and police have been deployed in Ayodhya, where the Babri Masjid mosque was razed in 1992 by hardline Hindus who believe the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram.
The government has stepped up security not just in Ayodhya but across the country and security forces have been put on a high alert.
A verdict in favour of building a Ram Temple at Ayodhya would be seen as a political victory for Modi, who won a second term in a landslide general election win this year. Section 144 has also been imposed in the state in Uttar Pradesh.
The Ayodhya land dispute is a political, historical and socio-religious debate in India that has been on for decades. The dispute is focused on a plot of land in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, which is regarded among the Hindus to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram.
According to some beliefs, it was originally the site of a Hindu temple that was demolished to construct a mosque known as Babri Masjid. For their part, Muslims claim that the land was titled to them and Mir Baqi built the mosque on it in 1528 on orders of the first Mughal emperor, Babur.
The modification/demolition of the temple has stood as a topic of controversy. By some accounts, some Muslims in 1949 saw an idol of Ram being placed inside what was then a mosque. Both Hindu and Muslim sides claimed ownership of the site and that led to an eventual lockdown of the area by the government.
On December 17, 1959, Nirmohi Akhara filed a suit seeking possession of the site and claimed to be the custodians of the disputed land. Following this, the Sunni Central Board of Waqf also filed a suit claiming ownership of the site on December 18, 1961.
Later, some Hindu kar sevaks on December 6, 1992, demolished Babri masjid, an action that triggered communal riots all over India, killing at least 2,000 people.
Over the years, the matter has been brought up by both groups in various courts of the country.
On September 30, 2010, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the disputed 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya should be divided into three parts among the Hindus, Muslims and the Nirmohi Akhara. The petitioners moved the Supreme Court and the apex court stayed the HC verdict.
In 2016, the court started a fresh hearing of the case. In 2017, the SC said that the matter was sensitive and suggested for the case to be settled out of court. It asked stakeholders to hold talks and find an amicable solution. However, no solution was achieved. In 2018, the Supreme Court set up a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear the land dispute case.
