NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to intervene in pending matters relating to the Ayodhya title dispute with his plea seeking construction of a Ram temple at the site of the demolished disputed structure. A bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra, while tagging Swamy’s fresh plea with pending civil appeals, said it cannot separately hear the petition seeking a direction to allow construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site where the disputed structure was demolished in 1992 as a matter of fundamental right.
“Tag this matter with the pending civil appeals. Let parties be served with the copies,” it said. Swamy argued that the government had already given an affidavit that it would pave the way for construction of the temple if there was evidence and moreover, there were findings of the Archaeological Survey of India to this effect. At the outset, the bench said it cannot entertain the “writ petition” when the civil appeals are pending before it and Swamy should either move the High Court for enforcement of his fundamental rights or seek impleadment as a party in the pending civil appeals here.
Swamy had earlier moved the plea for a direction to allow construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya at the disputed site and had mentioned it before a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur for urgent hearing. Swamy in his petition claimed that under the practices prevalent in Islamic countries, a mosque could be shifted to any other place for public purposes like constructing road etc, whereas a temple once constructed cannot be touched. Swamy also sought directions to expedite the disposal of several petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict of three-way division of the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site.