Can’t wish away mosque at disputed spot: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Babri mosque, which once stood at the disputed site in Ayodhya, can’t be wished away after one of the parties in the case argued that under Hindu tenets once a temple, always a temple, but this was not the case under Islamic tenets.

“You can’t wish away the mosque. It stood or stands. The structure was a mosque. You can’t wish it away,” said Justice SA Bobde, who is part of the five-judge bench examining the claims and counterclaims of both communities on the land, to senior advocate PN Mishra appearing for the Akhil Bharatiya Ramjanmabhoomi Punarudhar Samiti.


Mishra was arguing that the Hindus had been worshipping since time immemorial at the spot and that the Muslims had not been praying there since 1949. He also claimed the structure was not a mosque as per Islamic tenets as it had carved figures of living beings and humans which render it unfit to be a valid mosque under Islamic tenets.

It was a mosque-like structure, he said. He also pointed out that once a temple under Hindu law, it never ceases to be a temple, but that was not the case with a mosque — it may cease to be a mosque.

Besides, for a structure to qualify as a mosque, azaan must be offered at least twice a day. In this instance, only Friday prayers were offered at the spot for a few hours till 1949. Mishra had also claimed that Babur never visited the spot nor built the structure at the disputed site.

Justice DY Chandrachud also observed that the court would go by whether the structure was being used as a mosque or not. “If it was used as a mosque, it was a mosque,” he said.