Indian court to deliver Babri mosque verdict tomorrow

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* New Delhi alerts state governments, deploys central forces in UP, appeals for peace

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: Decks have been cleared for the Babri Masjid judgement on Thursday, as the Indian Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted its stay on a pronouncement by the Special Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court that will decide whether Hindus or Muslims will get control of the disputed site on which the mosque was demolished in December 1992, triggering riots across India, killing over 2,000.

The high court would have pronounced its decision on the 60-year-old land title suit last Friday, but the apex court slapped a stay a day earlier on an urgent Special Leave Petition (SLP) by retired bureaucrat Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, to give time for an out-of-court settlement.

“Having considered in detail the arguments of the parties, we are of the view that the SLP has to be dismissed,” said a summary order pronounced by a three-judge bench headed by Parsi Chief Justice Santosh Homi Kapadia. It gave no reason for overturning the stay granted by another bench of justices RV Raveendran and HL Gokhale last Thursday to allow the two communities a chance to settle it amicably.

The Centre also conveyed to the highest court through Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati that it did not want any uncertainty over the high court’s decision. “We cannot keep the security forces in suspended animation for long,” the AG stated, pleading that the judgement on ownership of the disputed site, one way or the other, should come without any further hitches.

Government: The government has already alerted state governments, deployed central forces in Uttar Pradesh and appealed to people to maintain peace as it feared the verdict could set off another one of the worst communal violence in independent India after the Babri Mosque demolition in 1992.

Though the case combining five suits is primarily to settle the dispute over the land title currently owned by the Sunni Waqf Trust, the high court had expanded it to cover 28 issues that include alleged demolition of the Ram Mandir at Lord Ram’s birthplace in the 16th century to erect the Babri Mosque in its place.