One of the longest-running battles in India’s history is the Ayodhya case; the people of different religions filed the first case against Ayodhya 134 years ago. The Ayodhya land dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India for the past few decades. This dispute is basically on the plot of land in Ayodhya, which is regarded as the Hindu deity Ram’s birthplace. Initially, Hindus believed that it was a Hindu temple, but it was demolished to construct a mosque known as Babri Masjid on the first Mughal emperor Babur’s order.
The first recorded legal history in the Ayodhya dispute dates back to 1858. An FIR was filed on November 30, 1858, by one Mohd Salim against a group of Nihang Sikhs who had installed their Nishan and written “Ram” inside the Babri mosque. They also performed havan and puja.
Over the decades, this case passed through many stages from Ghaziabad civil court to Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court to the Supreme Court.
This demolition became a hotly debated topic. The Muslims and the Hindus claim ownership of the plot, which resulted in the government’s lockdown of the area. Over the years, both the groups in various courts have brought up the matter for the decision, but the court did not take the desirable decision.
In 2010 Allahabad high court passed that the plot of Ayodhya should be divided into three parts among the Hindus, Muslims, and Sirohi akhara.as were not in favour of the decision moved to the Supreme Court. For years keeps on moving from one court to another court without any final decision being taken.
Participants in the decision:
Till December 2017, there were 32 appeals in the Supreme Court against the Allahabad court’s decision. At that time Supreme Court has decided that the final settlement will be in 2019for hearing of this case Supreme Court composed a bench that consisted of 5 judges:
Justice Ranjan Gogoi
Justice Sharad Arvind bob de
Justice D.Y Chandrachud
Justice Ashok Bhushan
Justice Abdul Nazeer
Finally, on March 8, 2019, the Supreme Court decides to settle it by a mediation panel, then the mediation panel submitted the report to the Supreme Court in May. After the hearing of 14 days in the Supreme Court that goes from August 6 to October 14.
Finally, on November 9, 2019, a supreme court bench led by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi unanimously rules that the disputed land be given to the ram janmabhoomi nyas construction of the temple. Muslim site is compensated with five acres of land at a prominent site in Ayodhya to build a mosque.
Prime minister Narendra Modi on February 5 had announced in the Lok sabha the formation of a trust and construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya as directed by the supreme court in its landmark verdict in the Ram Janam Bhoomi- Babri masjid case in November last year.
Ayodhya’s case is the oldest in history. The day when it was solved was like a Diwali for Hindus.
