New Delhi: The Sunni Waqf Board, represented by senior lawyer Rajeev Dhawan, urged the Supreme Court on Friday to refer the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute to a Constitution bench.
“Considering the importance of the case, it should be placed before a Constitution bench. It is the most important case and is going to shake India— one way or another,” Dhawan said.
The case is currently being heard by a three-judge bench comprising of chief justice Dipak Misra and justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer.
Dhawan said that this issue was far more important than a challenge to the Muslim law allowing polygamy that had been recently referred to a Constitution bench.
CJI Misra said that the case would be referred to a constitution bench only after all parties to the case had been heard.
The top court is hearing a total of 13 appeals filed against the 2010 judgment of the Allahabad high court in four civil suits. They challenge the high court verdict that ordered a three-way division of the disputed 2.77-acre site. On 7 February, the court said that the matter would be heard as a “pure land dispute”.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court had ruled in favour of partitioning the land equally among three parties—the Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and ‘Ram Lalla’ (infant Lord Ram), represented by the Hindu Mahasabha.
A civil suit for deciding the title of the property on which the Babri Masjid stood before it was demolished on 6 December 1992 had been filed before the high court.
The apex court stayed the decision in 2011.
The Shia Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh told the Supreme Court in August that it is amenable to building a mosque in a Muslim-dominated area, at a reasonable distance from the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site.
The case will be heard next on 27 April.
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