SC verdict on Babri no setback, say Muslim petitioners

The Supreme Court ruling that rejected a plea for referring the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi dispute to a larger Constitution Bench is not a setback, a number of Muslim petitioners asserted on Thursday.

By a majority 2-1 judgement, the Supreme Court rejected a plea for referring the case to a larger Constitution Bench and referred the case to a three-judge bench to be set up that will begin hearing from October 29.

Advocate Zafaryab Jilani, the convenor of the Babri Masjid Action Committee, said the verdict was no setback.

"It is not at all a setback. It just means that the trial will start now. The court has clarified that the observations made by a Supreme Court bench in the Ismail Farooqi case of 1994 were made in a particular context and not related to this case. I think that serves the purpose," Jilani told the media.

All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangimahali echoed him.

"The positive aspect of today's decision is that the court has made it very clear that Ismail Farooqi case will have no impact on the Ayodhya case. As far as the masjid and namaaz and the religious aspects are concerned, it is an established fact that mosques are built to offer namaz and they are an integral part of our religion," he told the media.

"Our main contention is that the whole land belongs to the Sunni Waqf Board and whatever the Allahabad High Court said, legally I think it cannot be said that you can divide the land between the three parties when you have not decided as to whom does it belong. So our main contention is that the whole land should be given to the Sunni Waqf Board," he added.

BJP Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy said the Modi government should acquire the land and hand it over to the representative bodies of the Hindus.

"There is no need to talk about whose property is this, whether Ramjanmabhoomi nyas or others. What we have to understand is if the Hindus have a fundamental right to pray at the spot where the faith tells them that Lord Ram was born," Swamy told CNN-News18.

"The government has s right to acquire properties including mosques. I would urge the Modi government to immediately acquire the entire land and hand it over to some representatives of the Hindua which include the various Akahras and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad," he added.

--IANS

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