On Thursday, Feb 8, 2018, the Supreme Court of India commenced hearing the appeals in Babri Masjid title suit. The courtroom was jam-packed with the litigants and their around 273 pleaders. On the onset, the bench headed by CJI made it amply clear that the court shall treat the case as a title suit and will not be detracted by political or religious arguments.
When a lawyer sought the court’s permission to intervene in the matter, saying it involved the faith of crores of Hindus, the SC bench said: “We can’t address these kinds of arguments. We are treating it as a land dispute. There are appeals and cross-appeals.”
Fixing next date for March 14, the court, in a brief order, directed the parties to file the English translation of relevant parts of documents exhibited by them. The other two Judges on the bench are Justices Abdul Nazeer and Ashok Bhushan.
The court allowed “interlocutory applications filed by parties to the appeals pertaining to the filing of additional documents and exemption from filing official translation”. It also permitted “applications seeking filing of documents which have been exhibited before the High Court” and “applications for deletion of parties”.
The appeals
After UP High Court ordered on Sept 30, 2010 a three-way division of the plot on which Babri Masjid stood from 1528 to 6 December 1992 and adjoining 2.77 acres land owned by Sunni Waqf Board, UP and now disputed, and giving a third each to the Nirmohi Akhara sect, the Sunni Central Wakf Board of UP, and Ramlalla Virajman, the idol of the child Ram which was deceitfully placed into the mosque in 1949.
After the decree was challenged, the SC stayed the operation on May 9, 2011. On all 14 appeals filed against the order are under the consideration of SC as a compound case.
The Court will have to examine hundreds of documents spread over thousands of pages on record.
The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the UP government, told the court that a total of 524 exhibits had been filed, besides 20 books including the Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas, and the Bhagavad Gita. The state had also translated and filed depositions of 87 witnesses apart from the report of the Archaeological Survey of India (which carried out an archaeological study of the site) and relevant photographs. The scrutiny and examination of these documents is a time-consuming exercise. The court will also have to listen to the arguments and cross arguments of a very large number of the pleaders. Most probably it will be heard as a routine case and not on the day-to-day basis. Therefore it will take a long time to conclude. (The Ramayana was composed by the poet Valmiki in Sanskrit, probably between 300-200 BC. Its present form consists of some 24,000 couplets divided in seven books. Tulsidas, also a scholar of Sanskrit, retold the story of Ramayana in his own way in Awadhi during Akbar Era (1556-1605.)
It is satisfactory that SC has refused to be swayed by the arguments based of “sentiments and beliefs” aroused recently for political profits. CJI Dipak Misra firmly told a tense and crowded courtroom, “Please treat this as a land issue.” So we need not to be wavered by TV shows. It will be good if we remain calm, cool and composed and avoid any arguments, which may flare up in violence in the year of LS elections, as the proponents of hatred may seek.
Sequence of events from 1528 to 2010
Here is a brief overview of the events regarding the Masjid built in the early Mughal era and destroyed in independent India.
1528: Meer Baqi, the Turk Governor of Awadh during the first Mughal King of India, Mohd Zaheeruddin Babar, built the mosque at a deserted site. There is not even an iota of contemporary historical records or literature of existence of any Mandir at the spot.
1574-1623: The legendary poet Tulsidas, in the era of Akbar (grandson of Babar) composed the epic “Ramchritra Manas” in Awadhi, during his stay in Ayodhya, Banaras and Chitrakoot; it was the retelling of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana composed by Valmiki. The Valmiki Ramayana and Ramchritramanas, both are cantered on the narrative of Rama. But none of the epics mentioned Ayodhya as the birthplace of Ram.
1759-1760: Raj Chaturman was the first person to mention the probability of Shri Ram being born in Ayodhya in his book “Char Gulshan”, two centuries after Tulsidas. Raj did not elaborate why he considered so. None of the two had mentioned the existence of Ram Birthplace Mandir or demolition of any Hindu place to build the Mosque.
1788: Christian priest Joseph T Hepler visited Ayodhya and noted: it is understood that Ram’s birthplace is within the courtyard of Babri-Masjid. He also did not mention any source. Presently there are several places in Ayodhya, believed to be Ram Janamasthan.
1859: There was a small platform close the mosque where Hindus used to pay reverence to Ramlalla. It was called Ram Chabutra. Next, there is Sita Rasoi. To separate the places of worship of two communities, a wall was erected during the British rule.
1885: Mahant Raghbeer Das filed an application in the office of District Magistrate, Faizabad, for permission to construct a Mandir on the platform; it was rejected.
22 December 1949: Some unidentified people smuggled the idols of child Ram and Sita in the Mosque and installed on the sanctum sanctorum under the central dome of the mosque in the intervening night of 22-23 December. That was noticed by the Imam next morning when he came for Fajr salat.
23 Dec 1949: When reported to the D.M. of Faizabad, Mr. K. K. Nayar, he ordered locking the doors of Mosque and appointed MCD Ayodhya as Receiver. He also appointed a priest to take care of the idols. The Muslims were banned to enter within 300 meters of the Mosque. After retirement Nayar was elected to Lok Sabha on Jan Sangh (predecessor of BJP) ticket.
1950: Hashim Ansari moved an application to open the mosque for Salat. This was followed by Gopal Visharad and Mahant Pramhans Ramchandra Das applications to declare Babri Masjid as Ram Janamasthan (Ram’s place of birth) and open the doors for Hindus to perform puja.
1959: Mahant Bhaskar Das of Nirmohi Akhara entered in the fray and demanded the charge of puja, etc.
1961: UP Sunni Waqf Board moved the court to restore the Mosque to Muslims for regular salat as it was until the night of 22 December 1949.
1964: The Court clubbed all four applications in one case 12/1964.
1984: Vishwa Hindu Parishad started a venomous movement for construction of Ram Janmabhoomi Mandi on the place of Masjid and claimed that the Mosque was built after the demolition of Ram Mandir.
Feb 1, 1986: A person named UC Pandey, who was not a party in any case, suddenly moved an application in the court of District Judge KM Pandey to open the Mosque for unrestricted puja. Within hours the Mosque was unlocked for Hindus in the glaring presence of media.
Nov 9, 1989: By the permission of Rajiv Gandhi Government a foundation stone for grand Ram Mandir was laid down in the area on an undisputed land.
Nov 11, 1989: VHP and BJP performed Bhumi Poojan and laid the foundation stone on the land owned by Muslim Waqf Board.
Sep 25, 1990: To fully politicalise the issue and to defeat the purpose of Mandal Report implemented by VP Singh, Mr. L.K. Advani, the then president of BJP, led a nationwide Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya. However, the yatra was stopped in Bihar by Lalu Yadav, then chief minister of Bihar. Subsequently, BJP withdrew support to VP Singh Government in Delhi.
October 7, 1991: VHP started Kar Seva for the construction of Ram Mandir at Muslims’ Waqf land. Mr. Kalyan Singh of BJP was the CM of the State. That was stopped by the efforts of the then P.M. Chandra Shekhar.
November 28, 1992: Mr. L.K. Advani declared that Mandir will be built at the same spot irrespective of the court verdict.
Dec 06, 1992: Thousands of Kar Sevaks gathered in Ayodhya on the call of VHP, RSS, and BJP. The Mosque was razed in the presence of thousands of police and security persons. A makeshift Ram Mandir was established on the debris of the historical Mosque. This was followed by widespread anti-Muslim violence all over India, destroying properties and killing people.
Dec 16, 1992: Liberhan commission constituted to enquire conditions leading to the demolition. The report came after 17 years.
January 7, 1993: President sent a single point reference to SC and asked whether a Mandir existed at Mosque site? SC refused to comply.
October 1994: Including LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, 49 leaders were made accused in the conspiracy case to demolish the Historic Mosque.
March 19, 1989: First BJP-led government installed in Delhi under Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He deputed a senior civil officer Shatrughan Singh to explore a formula to settle the case by mutual consent with no result.
April 2002: Allahabad High Court started hearing on title suit. On 12th March 2003, HC directed ASI to excavate the area to ascertain if some Mandir existed on the site before the Mosque was built. Nothing was found in the exercise.
Sept 2003: A court ordered to register a case against seven leaders for Masjid demolition. Advani, then UHM, was ignored. In Nov 2004 a court of UP ordered to relook why Advani was spared?
Sept 30, 2010: HC announced the judgment which caused present appeals in SC.