Ayodhya verdict: SC to hear 1st appeal today

NEW DELHI: The first appeal against the landmark Allahabad High Court verdict partitioning the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi area in Ayodhya will be filed in Supreme Court on Monday by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JuH), which was plaintiff number two before the HC.

JuH, which had filed the original suit in 1961 before the HC claiming ownership over the disputed area housing the disputed structure, assailed the HC verdict on the ground that by ordering partition of the area, it travelled beyond the pleadings of the parties as none of them had ever argued for it.

The appeal, which will be filed in the apex court on Monday, focusses on how the HC veered away from the facts and law and concentrated more on circumstances and extraneous material, counsel Anis Suhrawardy told TOI.

“The permission to perform puja cannot change the undisputed character of the structure, which had been consistently recorded in official records as a mosque,” JuH said in its petition.

The appellant said the HC could not have taken into account the ASI report as evidence to decide the case as the report had no value in the eyes of law.

“The HC has re-written history with its judgment by substituting its role from an adjudicatory body in law to that of the role of historian,” the JuH said, adding, “Myth, belief and faith could not be substituted by history for the purpose of application of law to the disputed suit property.”

The HC, by its September 30 verdict , had divided the small piece of land, which had been witness to highvoltage dispute between Muslims and Hindus for six decades, into three equal parts between Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and the person representing Ram Lalla (the idol).