Ayodhya case: Litigant tells SC that his right to worship shouldn't be curtailed

The Supreme Court on Thursday (August 22) commenced hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case for the 10th day, with counsel for the one of the original litigants seeking enforcement of his rights to worship at the disputed site.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Gopal Singh Visharad, one of the original litigants, commenced arguments before a five-Judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which was hearing the title dispute.

“I am making my submissions with reference to Parasaran’s and Vaidyanathan’s submissions that the place is itself a divine site and that I being the worshiper, my right to worship, which is a civil right, should not be curtailed,” Kumar told a bench, also comprising Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.

Senior advocates K Prasaran and CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for Ram Lalla Virajaman, a deity which is one of the parties in the decades old dispute, had earlier told the bench that the birthplace of Lord Ram at Ayodhya is itself a deity and no one can claim ownership right over the sacred place by merely putting up a structure like a mosque.

Vaidyanathan had said that neither Nirmohi Akhara nor the Muslim parties can take benefit of legal principal of adverse possession to claim ownership right over the 2.77 acre disputed land in Ayodhya.

Visharad had filed a lawsuit in 1950 seeking enforcement of his right to worship at the disputed site.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

Babri Masjid was demolished by right-wing activists on December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya, leading to a protracted legal battle.