The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to refer to a five-judge Constitution bench the issue of reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam that arose during the hearing of Ayodhya land dispute. The apex court, effectively, declined to revisit the Ram Mandir case. The court also added that the main Ayodhya case will be taken up for hearing in the week starting October 29.
Thursday's case was on a batch of pleas by Muslim groups on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute seeking reconsideration by a larger bench, the observations made by it in a 1994 verdict that a mosque was not integral to Islam.
The issue had cropped up when a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was hearing the batch of appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court's 2010 verdict by which the disputed land on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid area was divided in three parts.
A three-judge bench of the high court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had ordered that the 2.77 acres of land be partitioned equally among three parties —the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Reading out the judgment for himself and Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan stated that the judgment in Ismail Faruqui will not impact decisions in suits. "The observations in that judgment were only with respect to immunity from acquistion and won't affect suits," Justice Bhushan stated. "Observations in Ismail Faruqui on mosques as not essential to religion is in the context of acqusition of mosque and made with respect to the facts of that case."
However, dissenting with his brother judges, Justice Abdul Nazeer held that conclusions in the "Ismail Faruqui case were arrived at without comprehensive examinations and needs to be re-examined in detail".
