Sunni Wakf Board: Mosque area claimed as janmabhoomi in 1949

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday began looking at the evidence if any to examine the claims of the Sunni Wakf Board that there was “no unanimity” on the birthplace of Lord Rama in Ayodhya and that the area under the dome of the now demolished Babri masjid was claimed as the janmabhoomi only in 1949.

“That the area under the dome was the birth place is only a 70 year old belief,” Board lawyer Zafaryab Jilani told a five-judge bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi which is hearing appeals against the 2010 Allahabad High Court order which had divided the disputed 2.77 acres of land between the Hindus and the Muslims in the ratio of 2:1. All three sides are in the top court seeking sole and exclusive possession. The Nirmohi AKhara, the sebaiyat, will only concede to the rights of the deity if its right to manage and control the affairs of the deity, its lawyer Sushil Kumar Jain has said.

Jilani taking off from where senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan had left off, argued in court that the belief that the dome area was the birth place was only a recent belief and the court cannot be asked to accept it in absence of any facts or records.


In this context, he referred to contemporeous records from the 1528 when the mosque was built by emperor Babar’s nominee Mir Baqi in his name. The Valmiki Ramayana and the Ram Charita Manas do not refer to any exact spot as the birthplace although they do refer to Ayodhya as his birth city.