HISTORY OF RAM JANM BHUMI

HISTORY OF RAM JANM BHUMI

INTRODUCTION

It is said that the India is the Land of Gods, and one of the God our India worship the most is Lord Ram. He was son of Dashrath the King of Avadh (Ayodhya), so it is held that Ayodhya is the birth place of Lord Ram.
But this land of the Ram Janam Bhumi was disputed since 1528 around 500 years ago.
From a long time there was a question of the ownership and title of the land so from what time shall we consider the ownership
• either from 1528 when Babri Masjid was constructed ?or
• from 1949 when Ram Idol was placed at that area or
• from 1992 after the demolition of Babri Masjid?

Here we are going to discuss about the history of the land of Ayodhya verdict and the Judgement given by the Supreme Court.

HISTORY OF THE LAND

In the year 1528, a Mughal Emporer ordered his commander to build a mosque which was built on hill known as Ramkot (Ram’s Fort) and the locals of that area also says that the mosque was built after the demolition of the pre existing Rama’s mandir over here.

In the year 1853 at the time of Britisher’s rule, the First ever recorded incidents of communal violence at the disputed land took place.

In the year 1859, the British officials decided to divide the area into two parts and erected a fence providing the inner court to be used by the Muslims to worship and the outer court to be used by the Hindus to worship.

In 1885, first ever suit was filed by Mahant Raghubir Das in the District Court of Faizabad, seeking permission to build a canopy on Ram Chabutra (the outer court) but his plea was rejected a year after by the court.

In 1949 December 23, Idol of Lord Ram was surfaces inside mosque by the Hindus. Muslims protested against the act and many civil suits were filled.
The government proclaimed that the premises was a disputed area and locks the area, banning the entry of either hindus or muslim in that area.
Many civil suits were filled to uplift the ban put by the government.

In 1950, the first title suit was filled by Gopal Singh Visharad asking for the right to worship the idols kept at “Asthan Janmabhoomi”. The court restrained the removal of idols and allowed the worship to be continued.

In 1959, Nirmohi Akhara files the suit, seeking possession of the site, doing away with the court-appointed receiver.
Nirmohi Akhara claims to be the custodian of the area of the birthplace of the Lord Ram.

In 1961, Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqfs Board files a suit to claim possession of the Babri Masjid and the adjoining lands.

In 1986, on the plea of Hari Shanker Dubey, District Court of Faizabad allowed Hindus to worship in the area.
The Muslim opposing this decision of the District Court forms their own committee named “Babri Masjid Action Committee”.

In 1989, again a suit was filled by Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the name of “Ram Lalla Virajman” claiming the ownership and title of the area in their favour at the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.
All the four suits, pending before District Court of Faizabad was transferred to the special bench of High Court.

In 1990, Minister Shri Lal Krishna Advani organised a Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujrat to Ayodhya which resulted very dramatically and the situation got more tensed, promting nationwide communal riots and Shri L K Advani was arrested in Bihar.

In 1991, the whole disputed area was taken under the control by that time government in Uttar Pradesh by Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.

In 1992 December 6, demolition of  the Babri Masjid was done illegally by large group of activist of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and allied organisation in realtion to the Ayodhya dispute and a temporary Ram Mandir was established over there.
After this incident many communal riots took place throughout the country.

On 16 December 1992, Liberha Committee was formed to investigate the people behind the demolition of Babri Masjid.
At this period the Union Government was of Congress Leader Narsimha Rao so he proposed the construction of Mandir, Masjid, Library, Museum and other such amenities at the disputed land of Ayodhya. This proposal was strongly opposed by Bhartiya Janta Party.

In 1996, Allahabad High Court clubbed all civil suits.

In 2002, Allahabad high court directs the Archaeological Survey of India to excavate the site to determine if a temple lay underneath.
And the High Court begins the hearing.

In 2003, Archaeological Survey says there is evidence of a temple beneath the mosque.

In September 2010, after considering all the evidences the Allahabad High Court delivered a historical judgement in which the site is to be split in three- The area of where mosque used to be there was allotted to Ram Lalla Virajman, the area of sita rasoi, bhandara and ram chabutra was given to Nirmohi Akhada and the third part was allotted to the Sunni Wakf Board.

After the judgement of Allahabad High Court Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and Sunni Waqf Board moved to the Supreme Court of India, challenging part of the Allahabad High Court verdict.

On 9th May 2011, Supreme Court of India stayed the High Court order splitting the disputed site in three parts and said that status quo will remain.

On February 2016, a suit was filed by Subramaniam Swamy for the construction of the Ram Mandir in the Supreme Court.

In March 2017, Justice JS Khehar former Chief Justice of India, asked the whole dispute to be settled outside the court through mediation.
Till December 2017, 32 appeals were filed in the Supreme Court against the decision of the Allahabad High Court.
Supreme Court ordered the hearing of the case from January 2019.

On January 2019, Supreme Court composed a bench of five judges named, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Naseer.

Final report of the mediation was submitted to the Supreme Court and on the basis of the report submitted, the mediation has failed. The Supreme Court orders day to day hearing of the case from 6August 2019.

After the hearing by the Supreme Court of India the supreme court reserved its judgement and ask the parties to submit the moulding of relief i.e. whatever the parties have claimed and the court if does not give them that claim then what can be the alternate that can be claimed by them.
The almost 70 year long dispute comes to an end.

On 9th November 2019, the Supreme Court of India pronounced its verdict.
The Five judge bench of Supreme Court held that-
• The Government of India to create a trust to build the Ram Mandir temple and form a Board of Trustees within three months. The disputed land will be owned by the Government of India and subsequently transferred to the Trust after its formation.
• The entire disputed land of area of 2.77 acres to be allocated for the construction of a temple while an alternative piece of land of area of 5 acres be allocated to the Sunni Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque at a suitable place within Ayodhya.
• The 2010 Allahabad High Court decision was a unsustainable decision as this was a wrong relief because none of the parties asked for such relief, hence its judgemet was proved incorrect.
• That the Demolition of the Babri Masjid and the 1949 desecration of the Babri Masjid was in violation of law.
• That archaeological evidence from the Archaeological Survey of India shows that the Babri Masjid was constructed on a "structure", whose architecture was distinctly indigenous and non-Islamic.
• Muslim parties, including the Sunni Waqf Board, failed to establish exclusive possession of disputed land. It said that the Hindu parties furnished better evidence to prove that Hindus had worshipped continuously inside the mosque, believing it to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama.
• That the suit filed by Nirmohi Akhara could not be upheld and it had no shebait rights.[37] However, the court ruled that Nirmohi Akhara should be given appropriate representation in the Board of Trustees.