Ayodhya case: SC directs UP govt to provide security to Wakf Board chief

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the government of Uttar Pradesh to provide security to Sunni Wakf Board Chairman Zufar Ahmad Farooqui after he apprehended a threat to his life.

Farooqi had informed the five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court that he feared for his life through Sriram Panchu, one of the mediators in the Ayodhya Ramjanmabhoomi-Babari Masjid case.

Earlier today, the Sunni Central Waqf Board had told the court that it possesses the impugned land.

"We have been in possession throughout. There is nothing to suggest or show that the plaintiff (Nirmohi Akahara and others) are the proprietor of the disputed land in question," Rajeev Dhavan, representing the Waqf Board, told the bench.

The counsel had said that there is no proof from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to ascertain that a temple was destroyed to build the mosque at the impugned site.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi was hearing appeals challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict, which ordered equal division of the 2.77-acre disputed land in Ayodhya among the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.

The 16th-century Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992.

The top court had recently said that it would wrap up hearing the case on October 17, a day earlier than it was scheduled to, thus leaving merely three days of active hearing now. The judgment on the same will be passed on November 4-5.