Ayodhya Case: Supreme Court To Begin Final Hearing On February 8

NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court will from February 8 next year begin what it has described as the "final hearing" over the disputed Ayodhya site that is claimed by both Hindus and Muslims. Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the demolition of the 16th-century Babri Masjid at the site on December 6, 1992. Litigants on both sides have said they hope for a verdict soon.

Here is your 10-point cheatsheet to the story:

Last week, a group of 32 civil rights activists urged the Supreme Court not to treat the case like a narrow property dispute and instead "recognise the ramifications of letting religion dictate the fate of a piece of land".

They have pleaded that the disputed site in Ayodhya should be a space that exists for all, without conflict, stating, "The outcome of this dispute, perpetrated and violent, has the potential to affect the very foundations on which Indian democracy stands." The court is yet to accept the petition.

On December 6, 1992, thousands of right-wing activists razed the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, claiming it was built on a temple marking the birthplace of Lord Ram which was destroyed in the 16th century. The country's worst riots followed the Babri Masjid demolition; 2,000 people were killed.

In 2010, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court said the site should be shared between Hindus and Muslims. The verdict allotted two-thirds of the land to Hindus and said they could keep a makeshift temple that was built over the razed mosque's central dome.

Both Hindu and Muslim organisations involved in the dispute rejected the order and appealed against it to the Supreme Court, which, in March this year, suggested an out-of-court settlement was the preferred solution.

Muslims make up about 13 per cent of India's population. Most of them are Sunni; properties owned by the community are handled by the Sunni Waqf Board which was given a third of the land in the 2010 verdict.

The Shia Waqf Board, on the other hand, has proposed that the temple be built at the disputed site while a "grand mosque" be built in state capital Lucknow. "If the Ram temple and mosque co-exist, it will lead to conflicts," the Shia body said, provoking fierce criticism from its Sunni counterpart, which says it alone is a party to the dispute with Hindu organisations.

Iqbal Ansari of the Sunni Board said today that Wasim Rizvi of the Shia Board "has no documents or rights in this case". Mr Ansari also said, "We have high expectations from the court. Court doesn't pass decisions based on faith but on evidence. I have 100 percent belief that the decision will be in our favour because we have given the evidence that the mosque was destroyed here".

Its campaign for a Ram temple in Ayodhya propelled the BJP into a major political force in the 1990s, but in the last few years, the party relegated it to the back pages of its election manifestos even in Uttar Pradesh.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a saffron-clad priest who took charge after the BJP's sweep in assembly elections this year, has asserted that building a Ram temple is a key agenda. The Chief Minister began his campaign for crucial local body elections in the state from Ayodhya and said it means a place where there is no possibility of a "yudh" (fight). 

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