Ayodhya case: A timeline of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will hear the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case today. Here is a timeline of the case and various key developments in the story so far

BS: A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has begun hearing the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case today. Let’s take a look at the various important developmennts in the case over the decades leading up to today.

Dome to doom

1528: Mughal emperor Babur constructs a mosque and it is named Babri

December 23, 1949: Lord Ram’s idols are planted inside the central dome. Both sides file court cases; the site is locked

December 17, 1959: The Nirmohi Akhara files a suit seeking possession of the site and claims to be the custodians of the disputed land

December 18, 1961: The Sunni Central Board of Waqf files a suit claiming ownership of the site

1984: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) launches a campaign for the construction of the Ram temple at the Janmabhoomi site

February 1, 1986: Faizabad district court orders the gates of the mosque be opened and Hindus be allowed to worship there. Muslims protest the move and forms Babri Mosque Action Committee

November 9, 1989: VHP lays the foundation of a Ram temple on land next to the Babri Masjid following permission from the then Rajiv Gandhi government

September 25, 1990: Then BJP President L K Advani launches his Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya. He is arrested in Bihar’s Samastipur in November December 6, 1992: The disputed Babri Mosque is razed to the ground by karsevaks…

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SC to hear Ayodhya title dispute case today: Everything you need to know

How did the Ayodhya land dispute case get to where it is?

Latest News: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Ayodhya title suit regarding the Babri masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi land dispute would be heard by a five-judge Constitution bench on January 10 (Thursday).

The bench will be led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, with the other four judges being Justices S.A. Bobde, N.V. Ramana, U.U. Lalit and D Y Chandrachud. The Supreme Court began hearing the case in December 2017, when the Allahabad high court decision to split the land three ways was appealed.

In the last week of September 2018, the Supreme Court refused to refer to a five-judge Constitution bench a 24-year-old case – the Ismail Faruqui judgment – that said offering prayers in a mosque is not an “essential feature” of Islam. Justice Ashok Bhushan authored the majority judgment, for himself and then Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Justice S.A. Nazeer was the dissenting judge….

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What the Ismail Faruqui judgment of 1994 was about

The petitioner, Ismail Faruqui, challenged the validity of the Acquisition of Certain Area At Ayodhya Act, 1993, under which 67.703 acres were acquired in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex in Ayodhya.

The Supreme Court held that “any step taken to arrest escalation of communal tension” can “by no stretch of argumentation, be termed non-secular”.

Keep Reading: Ayodhya land dispute