HC says place of makeshift temple belongs to Hindus

Amit Anand Chaudhary and Abhishek Vajpayee
Lucknow, Sep 30 (POI) In a much-awaited verdict, the
Allahabad High Court Thursday ruled that the 2.77 acre
disputed land in Ayodhya in the north Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh be divided into three parts among Hindus and Muslims
and held that the place where the makeshift temple of Lord
Rama currently exists belongs to Hindus.
The majority 2-1 verdict of the Lucknow bench of the
court, said to be running into nearly 8,000 pages, comes after
nearly 60 years of tortuous litigation over who holds the
title to the disputed site. Still, the order may not be the
last word and the issue may land up in the Supreme Court.
As an anxious nation awaited the court verdict in the
highly-sensitive issue with lakhs of security personnel
deployed in Uttar Pradesh and other sensitive places across
the country, the order of Justices S U Khan, Sudhir Agarwal
and D V Sharma became public just before 4.30 PM amid high
drama.
The judges wrote three separate judgements but the
majority verdict held that the area covered by the central
dome of the three-domed structure where the idol of Lord Rama
is presently situated belongs to Hindus.
Justices Khan and Agarwal said the entire disputed land
should be divided into three equal parts, each to be given to
Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and the parties representing
'Ram Lalla Virajman' (seated Baby Ram).
Perhaps for the first in judicial history, a verdict
was delivered in high security with media and lawyers and
parties unrelated to the case kept out of the court premises.
Press briefings were arranged in the District Collectorate
opposite the court premises and summary of the judgements
immediately uploaded on the website.
The majority judges declared maintenance of status quo
at the disputed land for three months.
One of the parties to the case Sunni Waqf Board said
three-way division of land was not acceptable and it would
move the Supreme Court against the verdict.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held confabulations with
top Cabinet and party colleagues, including Congress President
Sonia Gandhi, after which he issued an appeal to all sections
of people for maintaining peace and tranquility.
He said the issues involved were complex and the
government remained fully committed to upholding the rule of
law and maintaining peace and order and harmony.
BJP top brass met at the residence of senior leader L K
Advani after the verdict was described as positive by party
spokesman Prakash Javadekar. (MORE) PTI AAC
PBL


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