The Hindu : SC to hear Ayodhya petitions today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002

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National

SC to hear Ayodhya petitions today
By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 12. The Supreme Court is to hear on Wednesday petitions seeking directions on the controversial move by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to go ahead with its reported `symbolic bhoomi puja' on March 15 for the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising Justice B.N. Kirpal, Justice G.B. Pattanaik and Justice V.N. Khare, will hear a petition filed by Mohd. Aslam alias Bhure for a direction to restrain the `kar sevaks' from reaching Ayodhya and for handing over 67 acres of land in the possession of the Centre to the Army.

An intervention application filed by the United Lawyers Front for permission to entrust to a `secular committee' the task of constructing both a temple and a mosque simultaneously in the land acquired by the Centre has also been listed for tomorrow.

Another petition, filed on Monday by Shailendra Bhardwaj, an advocate, on behalf of a Delhi businessman, Ravinder Gupta, that he be allowed to go to Ayodhya as he was a `Sanatan Dharmi' and a regular pilgrim to that holy city, is also to be mentioned before the Bench along with the other petitions. In his petition, Mr. Gupta said he was deeply hurt by the restrictions imposed on his free movement to Ayodhya as it amounted to denial to perform his religious obligations.

Under the pretext of preventing the VHP agitation, the State could not do away with the rights of citizens and the Government should find a way to ensure that genuine pilgrims were able to freely visit the religious town of Ayodhya.

The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is also likely to mention its application seeking to restrain the VHP from performing the ``bhoomi puja'' near the `disputed site' in Ayodhya.

The apex court, in its 1994 judgment upholding the acquisition of land by the Centre, had observed, ``the moderate Hindu has little taste for the tearing down of the place of worship of another to replace it with a temple. It is our fervent hope that moderate opinion shall find expression and that communal brotherhood shall bring to the dispute an amicable solution long before the courts resolve it.''

But as negotiations have failed to break the deadlock so far, the role of the Supreme Court, as sought for by the parties concerned, has come into the fore again.

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