Indian top court rules in favor of Hindu temple on disputed land

09/11/2019

This news has been read 17636 times!

A statue of Hindu god Rama stands beside the River Sarayu in Ayodhya, India , Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. India’s security forces were on high alert ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict Saturday in a decades-old land title dispute between Muslims and Hindus over plans to build a Hindu temple on a site where Hindu hard-liners demolished a 16th century mosque in 1992, sparking deadly religious riots. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

NEW DELHI (AP) – India’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Hindu temple on a disputed religious ground and ordered that alternative land be given to Muslims.
The dispute over land ownership has been one of the country’s most contentious issues.
The 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu hard-liners in December 1992.
The Supreme Court says in a judgment on Saturday that 5 acres (2.02 hectares) of land will be allotted to the Muslim community in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya.
The disputed land will be given to a board of trustees for the construction of a temple for Hindu god Ram.

Following is a timeline of the events that have shaped the case.

1528 – The mosque in Ayodhya, in what is now India’s biggest state of Uttar Pradesh, was built by Mughal emperor Babur, according to documents produced by Muslim groups in court.
1949 – Muslim groups accuse government officials of conniving with Hindu monks to place an idol of an infant Lord Ram in the grounds of the mosque.
1950 – A first suit is filed in a court near Ayodhya, seeking permission to worship the idol of Lord Ram.
1986 – A court orders locks to be opened at the disputed site and that Hindus be allowed to pray there.
1992 – Thousands of Hindu activists, led by politicians of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tear down the mosque.
1992-93 – Hindu-Muslim riots erupt across northern and western India. Rights group estimate more than 2,000 people were killed.
2010 – A three-judge bench of the Allahabad high court in Uttar Pradesh ruled that the site of the mosque should be divided into three parts between the three main parties in the case.
2011 – The Supreme Court stays the high court’s order
2019 – A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India begins day-to-day hearings to resolve the case.
Nov. 9, 2019 – The Supreme Court gives a Hindu group control over the disputed plot and Muslims an alternate parcel of land.

This news has been read 17636 times!

09/11/2019