While Hindus claimed the land to be the site of the birthplace of their most revered Lord Ram, Muslims asserted their right over the same as the site of a 16th century mosque claimed to have been built by the first Mughal emperor Babur in the ancient town of Ayodhya, about 120 km from Lucknow.
The eagerness of locals and tourists in Ayodhya seems to have peaked with Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reiterating that Wednesday will be the last day of hearings in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid land dispute case.
"We are developing Ayodhya in this Kalyug as Ayodhya was in Treta Yug," he said, referring to mythical times.
The Hindu Mahasabha, one of the parties in the Ayodhya title suits, has filed an objection relating to the judgement of the Allahabad high court on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.
The apex court had last year disallowed Swamy from intervening in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
'Mr Modi has the power and pre-eminence in the BJP-RSS to choose how long he wants to serve, and he is definitely going to want to contest in 2029.' 'He will only be 79, as old as Donald Trump now, and fitter,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
'The burden of proof is on Muslim parties to show that this finding, that the mosque was built on land held sacred by Hindus, is wrong'
The apex court requested the committee to inform it by August 1 about the outcome of the proceedings held till July 31.
The counsel appearing for both the Hindu and Muslim parties expressed confidence over the ongoing mediation proceedings and said they are fully cooperating with the process.
The central government said, "It was an act of national shame, what was demolished was not merely an ancient structure but the faith of the minorities in the sense of justice and fair play of the majority.
In an unusual coincidence, the two judges of a Supreme Court bench hearing a plea against the survey of the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex in Varanasi have had an association with a similar kind of dispute relating to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid issue as well.
The bench directed that the mediation will be held at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and the process should start within a week from Friday.
She was referred to King George's Medical University as the women's hospital in Ayodhya did not have the facility to provide adequate treatment, the district's chief medical officer Sanjay Jain said.
The 1994 judgment envisaged status quo only on the 2.77 acres of disputed area, the Centre pleaded.
The Supreme Court of India has dismissed the bail plea of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case. The court ruled that there was no merit in his plea for bail or suspension of sentence. Bhatt, along with co-accused Pravinsinh Zala, was found guilty of murder, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal intimidation by the Gujarat High Court in 2024. The case stems from the death of Prabhudas Vaishnani, who was detained by Bhatt following a communal riot in Jamjodhpur in 1990. Vaishnani's brother alleged that Bhatt and other police officers tortured him in custody, leading to his death.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday recalled how the government, political parties and the civil society prevented attempts to create fissures when the 2010 Allahabad high court ruling on the disputed land in Ayodhya was to be delivered.
This has invited sharp reaction from the Opposition, with the Samajwadi Party saying that the BJP was afraid of its defeat in Milkipur due to which it moved the court for "stalling" polls on the assembly seat.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has told the Supreme Court that the trial of Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani in the Ayodhya demolition case has to be carried on without dropping the conspiracy charge against him as the razing down of the medieval monument was part of a "single larger conspiracy". The agency, in its recent affidavit, opposed the separation of trial of eight accused leaders -- Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar etc.
The ASI, which had found artefacts, idols, pillars and other remains, stated in its report about the existence of a massive structure beneath the 'alleged Babri Masjid'.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High court rejected an appeal for an out-of-court-settlement of the Ayodhya. The Nirmohi Akhada had sought a 10 day period to attempt to reach an out-of-court settlement. The court rejected the Akhada's plea and also fined petitioner Ramesh Chandra Tripathi Rs 10 lakh. The court declared that the judgement on the Ayodhya title suit would be pronounced on September 24, as was originally declared.
'The Constitution of India defeated the BJP.'
"I would also like to tell judges that do not be afraid and keep going on the path of justice," Modi said.
In the caveat, the Hindu Mahasabha has asked the court not to pass order on any appeal against the September 30 Allahabad high court verdict without hearing it.
the Uttar Pradesh home ministry has written to the Centre seeking 600 companies of Central Paramilitary Forces but only 40 companies have been sanctioned till date.
"This has to be deprecated. This is something which should not be happening," a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.
The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, one of the main litigants in the Ayodhya title suits, on Saturday said it will move the Supreme Court against the verdict of the Allahabad high court by November 10. "The Mahasabha would file its appeal in the apex court against the high court verdict by November 10 and has authorised its national leader Dinesh Chandra Tyagi to pursue the case," state unit president of the Mahasabha Kamlesh Tewari said.
The submission was vehemently opposed by senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, representing deity 'Ram Lalla', who said: "This is totally unwarranted".
The bench said after perusing the report, if it came to a conclusion that an amicable solution through mediation was not possible, then the apex court would commence day-to-day hearing in the matter from July 25.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed its interim report on the 23 missing files related to the Ayodhya title suits in a special court.
The Muslim parties on Thursday took a U-turn on questioning the authorship of the 2003 report of the Archaeological Survey of India and apologised to the Supreme Court for wasting its time in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
The High Court's Lucknow bench hearing the Ayodhya title suits, while passing the order, also directed the CBI director to submit an interim progress report before the court on August 24 -- the next date of hearing.
"I did not want to take the photograph of Lord Ram but etch his image in my heart instead," said Amit Pathak, a resident of Tulsinagar in Ayodhya, a day ahead of the 'pran pratishtha' ceremony at the Ram temple.
Roads are being expanded, bridges are being built, hotels are springing up, and the crowds are pouring in. Bringing with them promise of unforeseen economic boom. Ayodhya, it seems, has opened up its heart, Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com discovers on his first day in the city.
Bhatt was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case in Jamnagar and 20 years in jail in a 1996 case relating to planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur. He is currently lodged in the Rajkot Central Jail.
Fourth-term Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey, one of the more vocal party members in the Lok Sabha, launched a broadside against the Supreme Court on Saturday, saying Parliament and state assemblies should be closed down if the apex court has to make the laws.
Tells the Liberhan Commission that the charge against Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi of being part of a conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid was made out of anger.
The main accused in the case of attack on a woman constable on board a train in Ayodhya was gunned down, while two other accused were injured in an encounter with police on Friday, a senior official said.
If Saudi Arabia, with just two Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, can create a huge tourism-based ecosystem beyond oil, Ayodhya is sure to become the world's hottest religious tourism site in less than a decade, predicts R Jagannathan.
They also termed as 'unwarranted' and 'unfortunate', the submission of Muslim parties that the archaeological report be trashed.
'They want to keep the pot boiling all the time.' 'The BJP wants to set a political narrative that the Gandhis are doing wrong things.'
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