Nirmohi Akhara Mahant Dharam Das and Iqbal Ansari, main litigants in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case, after the Supreme Court’s verdict, in Ayodhya, Thursday. (Source: PTI)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to hold hearing on the title suit over the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya from October 29.
The VHP also said the apex court’s decision — that there is no need for a larger bench to re-examine its 1994 judgment in the Ismail Faruqui case — has cleared the way for expeditious hearing of the main appeals of the Ayodhya title suit.
“We welcome this (the Supreme Court’s) decision and are confident that a just verdict will be reached over the case at the earliest,” RSS all-India Prachar Pramukh Arun Kumar said in a statement.
VHP international working president Alok Kumar said, “We are very satisfied with today’s judgment. I believe the issue of sanctity of mosque in Islam is not an issue in the Ram Janmabhoomi appeals. This was an unnecessary impediment created in the way of hearing of the main appeals.”
He said a meeting of a high-powered committee of saints has been called on October 5 and the VHP will place the whole situation before them. The saints, he said, will be informed that the matter has been in court for 68 years and has not been decided yet. The saints will be requested to guide further on the process to construct the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, Kumar said.
The VHP leader said that there were two matters related to Ram Janmabhoomi, one of them being the case against BJP veteran L K Advani and others. He said the Supreme Court directed the district judge to decide those prosecutions by April 2019, but “I am surprised why such alacrity was not shown in the hearing of the main appeals”.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “The majority of this nation wants a solution to this at the earliest. We appeal that this matter is resolved as soon as possible,” he told the media.