Thu 12 December 2019:
India’s Supreme Court has dismissed petitions seeking a review of its recent ruling in favour of building a Hindu temple on a disputed site in northern India where a 16th-century mosque was torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992.
The petitioners, representing the Muslim litigants, had said they were aggrieved by the court’s decision and sought reconsideration of the verdict. A total of 18 petitions were heard by the court.
“We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers filed therewith. We do not find any ground, whatsoever, to entertain the same. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed,” a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said.
Zafaryab Jilani, All India Muslim Personal Law Board on SC dismisses all review petitions in Ayodhya case judgment: It is unfortunate that SC has not entertained our review petitions. We cannot say what should be our next step , we will consult our senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan. pic.twitter.com/iWjd8mE2Yo
— ANI (@ANI) December 12, 2019
Muslim petitioners who pressed for a review said they found the verdict unfair and a majority of India’s Muslim population was against the ruling.
The petitioners still have a last legal recourse of filing a curative petition in the Supreme Court, asking it to “cure” perceived defects in the verdict.
Ayodhya dispute
On November 9, the court held that the site in Ayodhya will be given to a government-run trust for the building of a Hindu temple, while Muslims were allotted five acres (two hectares) of land at an alternative site to construct a mosque there.
The ruling was seen as a major victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which has promised to build a Hindu temple at the demolished site as part of its election strategy for decades.
Hindus believe Lord Ram, the warrior god, was born at the site and that a Mughal Muslim ruler built a mosque on top of a temple there.
A December 1992 riot following the destruction of the mosque sparked communal violence in which about 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
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