LUCKNOW: While the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has decided to file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s November 9 judgment in the Ayodhya title suit, the Hindu parties including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas (RJN) and Nirmohi Akhara view it as a tactic to further delay the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
In its meeting held in Lucknow on Sunday, the AIMPLB decided to file a review petition in the apex court.
Ram Lalla’s 'next friend', Triloki Nath Pandey, who represented Ram Lalla Virajman in the title suit decided by the apex court felt that petitioning the Supreme Court to seek a review of its unanimous verdict will be an exercise in futility. “The AIMPLB’s decision will hold no legal ground as the decision
given by the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court was unanimous,” Pandey claimed.
RJN head Mahant Nritya Gopal Das flayed the AIMPLB’s decision saying it was meant to put a stumbling block in the path of temple construction. “When all the preparations for temple construction are complete, they are trying to delay it again. Even during the hearing, the AIMPLB had tried many a time to get the verdict delayed,” said the Mahant.
“When a number of main litigants have accepted the apex court decision, such a stance of seeking a review amounts to insult not only to those Muslim brethren who have welcomed the order but also the judicial wisdom of a constitutional bench which delivered a unanimous verdict,” said Sharad Sharma,
regional spokesperson of the VHP, who operates from Karsevakpuram in Ayodhya.
“During the efforts for an ‘out of court settlement’ of the vexed issue, the AIMPLB said it wanted the court to resolve the matter. Now they are finding faults with the court order as well,” he added.
Similarly, Nirmohi Akhara chief Mahant Dhinendra Das said the AIMPLB was free to do anything but the majority of the main litigants were against filing a review petition.
Even the Nirmohi Akhara’s claim to the disputed land was dismissed by the Supreme Court and it was mulling a review petition. But at a meeting of the ‘Akhara panchs’ in Ayodhya on Sunday, it was decided that the Akhara will not file any review petition against the SC order. “We are satisfied with the court’s decision. We wanted a Ram temple and the court has paved the way for its construction,” said Mahant Dhinenedra Das, head of the Akhara.
Meanwhile, a five-member delegation of the Nirmohi Akhara is preparing to meet PM Narendra Modi. As per the Akhara spokesman Prabhat Singh, the Akhara has submitted a memorandum through the Ayodhya DM to the PM seeking time to meet him and urge him to rope them into the upcoming temple trust. Even the apex court had said in its order that the Nirmohi Akhara should also be a part of the trust to be set up by the Centre.
On Monday, minister of state in the Modi cabinet Sadhvi Niranjani said that filing a review petition may disturb the peace in the country. “First they promised to abide by the SC order. Now they don’t have trust in the country’s judicial system,” she said while interacting with the media in Agra.