LUCKNOW: Rejecting the Supreme Court’s order over vexed Ayodhya issue and refusing to accept the five-acre alternative land to be allocated for mosque as per the verdict, the All India Muslim personal Law Board (AIMPLB) decided to file a review petition against the apex court order within a month to seek the same land on which there was mosque before being demolished in 1992.
Coming out of the board meeting, secretary AIMPLB and lawyer of UP Sunni Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB), one of the main litigants in the title suit, claimed that the land of mosque belonged to Allah and that it could not be given to anyone.
He added that the board was against accepting the land in lieu of mosque in Ayodhya as there could not be any alternative to a mosque.
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Pointing out the alleged loopholes in SC order, Jilani said that if the installation of statues of Lord Ram inside the mosque was unconstitutional in 1949, how could the court consider the idols as eligible for worship (araadhya) and even when it was against the Hindu religion.
“The AIMPLB has decided to file a review petition against the Supreme Court order in Ayodhya title suit delivered on November 9, 2019,” said Board member Sayyad Qasil Rasool Ilyas while talking to media persons here on Sunday.
The Supreme Court, in its verdict in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title case on November 9, said the entire 2.77 acres of disputed land should be handed over to the deity Ram Lalla, who was one of the three litigants. The five-judge Constitution bench also directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to the
Sunni Waqf Board in Ayodhya to build a mosque.
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Chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) Arshad Madni said that it was the right of Muslims to seek a review of the Supreme Court order though the fate of it was pre-destined. “The review petition will be dismissed cent per cent but that is our right to seek it,” Madni said. He claimed that the board had taken the decision only after elaborated confabulations and consultations with legal luminaries.
The Board also collectively decided that any offer to five-acre land for mosque building in Ayodhya would be rejected by the Muslims. However, Mahmood Madni, secretary Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind (JuH) had reached the board meeting late and left it early without spelling out the reasons.
Earlier the venue of board meeting was changed from Nadwatul Ulema to Mumtaz PG College in Lucknow as the district administration had denied permission to the AIMPLB to hold such a meeting in the wake of Section 144 of CrPC being in place.
The board had only two points on its agenda – first, to take a decision over the review petition and second, to decide if the alternative five-acre land for mosque building as per the provision of SC order, should be accepted or not.
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The board also inferred after going through the SC verdict that it was against the interest of Muslim parties, so review petition was the option open for them. The AIMPLB was not a party in title suit but had been assisting the Muslim parties through logistics.
Prominent among those present in the meeting included, AIMIM chief Asassuddin Owaisi, who has been quite vocal about his objections to the SC verdict.
Besides, AIMPLB president Rabe Hassan Nadvi and member Zafaryab Jilani, Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali, the Imam of Lucknow’s Idgah mosque was also present in the meeting.
While one of the main litigants of the case Iqbal Ansari sought to distance himself from the AIMPLB’s decision to go for a review of SC verdict calling it a futile exercise as the outcome would remain the same but the atmosphere of the country would be vitiated, the other litigant UP Sunni Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB) too had expressed its views against going for a review or curative petition
in the case.
The Sunni Waqf Board would meet to decide the issue of acceptance of alternative 5-acre land for the mosque on November 26. However, UPSCWB chief Zufar Faruqi could not be contacted despite repeated efforts to take his reaction to AIMPLB’s decision.