The Allahabad high court will hear Wednesday a plea against the acquittal of all 32 accused, including Bharatiya Janata Party veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, in the Babri mosque demolition case.
'He was a nobody then.' 'And whatever little his contribution was there, it was restricted to Gujarat.'
The event will be marked by prayers to Lord Shiva at the Kuber Tila shrine on the Ram Janmabhoomi site, allocated for the temple in a historic Supreme Court verdict last November.
The suit, filed by Hindu Sena president Vishnu Gupta, has sought direction to the authorities concerned to stop the publication, circulation, and sale of the book Sunrise Over Ayodhya for allegedly hurting the sentiments.
'We have devotion towards Gyanvapi so doing something as per that, it's all right. But why look for a Shivling in every masjid?'
While Ayodhya resembled a city under seige earlier during the day, the scene was no different elsewhere in the state with police and central forces keeping an eye over the security situation and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath personally monitoring it from a hi-tech control room in the state capital.
A nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde at the outset said that it will only deal with the issues referred to it by a five-judge bench on November 14 in the Sabarimala case, and asked the lawyers to convene a meeting on January 17 to decide on 're-framing' or adding additional issues to be deliberated upon by it.
Mahant Narendra Giri, the newly elected president of All India Akhara Parishad, met Hashim Ansari, the oldest surviving litigant in the Babri Masjid case.
The meeting came a day after the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra, set up recently to oversee the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, met for the first time on Wednesday.
Soon after Hardik Patel quit the Congress on Wednesday, the opposition party alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has 'lured' the Patidar leader by promising to get cases against him withdrawn and has 'scripted' his resignation letter.
Mahant Nritya Gopal Das was elected president and Champat Rai general secretary of the Ram Temple trust at its first meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday.
A senior IPS officer, who deposed that BJP leader L K Advani had made a provocative speech in Ayodhya moments before the Babri masjid was demolished by Sangh Parivar activists in 1992, was on Friday cross-examined by the defence in a Rae Bareli special court.
'What is at stake is not one mosque or temple, it is the question of the principle of secularism which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution as declared even by the Supreme Court of India.'
President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath at a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Iqbal Ansari, one of the main plaintiffs who fought for the right of the community over the disputed land, says Muslims in Ayodhya won't be satisfied if the Sunni Waqf Board accepts the five acres in Dhannipur.
The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished by karsevaks on December 6, 1992.
The CBI court also ordered framing of charges against the accused in light of the Supreme Court order dated April 19, 2017.
The BJP, however, denied the former three-time state chief minister's assertion on Ranjan Gogoi who was nominated as a Rajya Sabha member by the government in March.
After the incident took place on Sunday evening, the body of a man was found about 200 metres from the clash site in Kidana village, and the police are trying to ascertain if he was killed as part of that violence, Kutch (East) Superintendent of Police Mayur Patil said.
On the eve of Babri mosque demolition anniversary, Uttar Pradesh government on Friday enhanced the security of Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the case, by providing him a Y category security cover.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of A G Perarivalan, who has served over 30 years of life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
VHP national working president Alok Kumar also rejected questions about the muhurta of the event, saying the 'best advice' has been taken including from the Head of the Jyotish Department of the Banaras Hindu University on timing of the ceremony.
The ministry of information and broadcasting on Saturday issued an advisory to all television channels and cable TV operators in the wake of the Supreme Court's Ayodhya verdict to adhere to programme code and ensure that debates, discussions and visuals do not incite any "divisive" or "anti-national" feelings.
A notification by the MHA said a trust by the name 'Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra' has been registered with its registered office at R-20, Greater Kailash Part-1, New Delhi, 110048. The ministry also said as directed by the SC, the UP government has already issued the allotment letter of a five-acre plot to the Sunni Central Waqf Board for construction of a mosque.
The full-court press on India over Ukraine, the BBC 'documentary', the Oxfam report, the Hindenburg attack on Adani and obliquely on the Indian economy, and any number of other acts are signs that India is a target, warns Rajeev Srinivasan.
"There are clearly two sides. On one side, there is an organisation of patriots in the form of BJP and on the other side, tukde-tukde gang have come together under the leadership of the Congress. It is for the people of Karnataka to decide now whether they are with the patriots or those who support people who want to divide this country," he added.
The 1991 provision is an Act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The top court said there are serious infirmities in the oral accounts of Nirmohi witnesses that the disputed structure was not a mosque but the Janmabhoomi temple.
'After Covid, people started looking for bigger houses with pools and landscaped gardens.' 'Even middle class buyers are looking at plots of land in smaller towns.'
He slammed the Samajwadi Party for being sympathetic towards terrorists and claimed that the previous government headed by it had sought to withdraw cases against several terror accused as 'a return gift'.
The Places of Worship Act is 'An Act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto'.
'Akahara' apprised a 5-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, of its stand following a direction whether it opposes the plea of the deity in view of the fact that its right as 'shebait' (devotee) over the property can only stand if the lawsuit of 'Ram Lalla Virajman' is allowed.
Political power has now been outsourced fully to the Modi government. Even if the RSS is still, in principle, his guru, nobody would dare to whisper a word of advice to Modi, forget some whiff of criticism. When the shishya grows into such a popular and domineering leader, the guru has to applaud from the sidelines, points out Shekhar Gupta.
"Crossing that 'Lakshman rekha' many times, this is especially more worrisome," the judge, who has recently been elevated to the top court, said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday challenged Prime Minister Narerndra Modi's claim about the crime situation in Uttar Pradesh, asking him to check data of the home department and other central agencies.
Here are some of the reactions to the apex court's decision.
Speaking on the occasion, Modi said the flag unfurled at the temple is not just symbol of our spirituality, but shows that our faith remains strong despite passage of centuries, and added that the centres of faith and spiritual glory of India are now being re-established.
It further said that the epic Valmiki's Ramayana, whose composition dated back to the period Before Christ (BC), was the main source of knowledge of Lord Ram and his deeds.
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
On Monday, prosecution had sought death penalty for all the 24 people convicted for the gruesome killings.
