SC to take up Ayodhya review petitions December 12

The Supreme Court is to take up on Thursday a batch of review petitions, seeking reconsideration of the judgment, given on November 9, in the Ayodhya case that decided the long-pending title suit between Hindu and Muslims in favour of 'Ram Lalla' for building a Ram Temple and ordered for giving a separate five acres of land to Sunni Central Waqf Board to construct Babri Masjid elsewhere in the district.

A five-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde and comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna would consider as many as 18 petitions.

According to the SC Rules, the review petitions are considered in judges chambers through circulations. The petitions are posted for the open court hearing after the judges feel the matter should be reconsidered.

Notably, Justice Khanna is the new judge to the bench, since then CJI Ranjan Gogoi had demitted office on November 17.

President of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Uttar Pradesh and legal heir of plaintiff M Siddiq, Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi was the first to seek a reconsideration of the decision and asked the court to allow the Muslims side to rebuild the Babri Masjid on the site. He said there can be no peace without justice.

The review petition filed by advocate Ejaz Maqbool pointed out the apex court acknowledged several illegalities committed by the Hindu Parties, but awarded the disputed site to the very party which based its claims on nothing but a series of illegal acts.

Review petitions were also filed by Maulana Mufti Hasbullah, Mohd Umar, Maulana Mahfoozur Rehman and Mishbahuddin, and Haji Nahboob who were all supported by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha also filed a review petition on behalf of the Hindus side, saying particularly the direction to grant five-acre of land to Sunni Waqf Board would create “misconception in the mind of general public” and may “create further complications in future”.

Though not a party to the dispute, 40 eminent citizens including Prabhat Patnaik, Irfan Habib, Harsh Mander, Jyati Ghosh, Nandini Sundar, Shabnam Hashmi, Akar Patel also filed their own petition, saying they were aggrieved by the judgement, containing inherent contradictions and legally deficient and manifestly unjust reasonings.

Shia Central Board of Waqfs, Samrat Priyadarshi Youth Foundation of India, Indian National League, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) are among others who filed the review petitions.