Govt moves SC on excess land at Ayodhya, seeks permission to return it to Nyas
New Delhi, Jan 29: In what could be described as applying a soothing balm on the ruffled feelings of millions of citizens on the inordinate delay in resolving the Ramjanmasthan Ayodhya case by the Supreme Court, the Central Government has moved the apex court seeking its permission to hand over the undisputed excess land to the Ram Janmabhumi Nyas (Trust).
The government maintained that the disputed portion of the land covers only 2.77 acres of the total acquired land of 67 acres in Ayodhya. This land was acquired by the government and the Supreme Court had asked the government to maintain status quo on this.
The Government argued that dispute is only for 2.77 acres area while for the rest of area there is no dispute and therefore, there is no need to maintain the status quo on that. The Government wants to hand over this undisputed land to the Ram Jamnabhumi Nyas (Trust) and is seeking permission from the apex court for this transfer.
The five-judge bench constituted by the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on January 25 included besides the CJI, Justice S A Bobde, Justice Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Justice Abdul Nazir. Questions were raised on non-inclusion of a Muslim judge in the earlier bench.
Advocate for Muslim respondents Rajiv Dhavan had raised doubts over the inclusion of Justice U U Lalit in the earlier five-judge bench following which he had recused from the bench and the CJI had reconstituted the bench with inclusion of a Muslim judge.
Meanwhile, the sadhus and sants gathered at the Triveni Sangam at Prayagraj on the occasion of the ongoing Kumbh, had convened a ‘Param Dharma Sansad’ under the leadership of Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati. This Dharma Sansad will continue till January 30.
The emotions of the sadhu and sants are very high on this issue and they had declared that they will offer non-violent satyagrah to build the Ram Temple. The Vishwa Hindu Parisahd (VHP) is also organising a Dharma Sansad on this issue at Prayagraj on January 31.
Meanwhile, the firebrand Rajya Sabha MP of BJP Dr Subrqamanian Swamy had met the Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the Ram temple issue. Swamy tweeted about the meeting stating that the central government had gone to Supreme Court to seek release of the non-disputed 67 acre land to start immediate construction.
Dr Swamy also said that there is already a Ram Mandir standing on the RJB but it is in a tent. Till Title Suit is decided we will build all other parts of the temple. Then thereafter we will construct the sanctum sanctorum.