Don’t create nonsense, SC rebukes petitioners of Ayodhya artefacts

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday rebuked and fined two PIL petitioners for trying to create “nonsense” by claiming that artifacts and stone figurines from the Ramjanmabhoomi temple site in Ayodhya depicted an ancient culture which could predate Hinduism.
A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra was so exasperated by the ‘frivolity’ of the PILs — one filed by members of Samyak Vishwa Sangh and the other by Dr Ambedkar Bodhikunj Foundation — that it did not allow senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy to canvass for the petitioners.
What possibly irked the SC was new pleadings being put forth by the petitioners claiming evidence about a culture older than Hinduism at the disputed site, when its five-judge bench had examined evidence threadbare, including excavation reports of Archaeological Survey of India and witness depositions before ruling that Hindus had a better title right over the disputed site than Muslims.
The court saw the PILs as an attempt to create a window for fresh litigation over the site, which saw protracted litigation for 70 years between Hindus and Muslims. Justice Mishra said, “What is this nonsense you are creating? You have no respect for the Supreme Court judgment?”