Ayodhya verdict victory for Ram bhakts; path to build temple paved: Subramanian Swamy

BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Thursday described as a "victory" for devotees of Lord Ram the Ayodhya verdict, in which the Supreme Court refused to refer to a five-judge bench the issue whether mosque is integral to Islam.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. PTI Photo

NEW DELHI: BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Thursday described as a "victory" for devotees of Lord Ram the Ayodhya verdict, in which the Supreme Court refused to refer to a five-judge bench the issue whether mosque is integral to Islam. The top court declined to refer to a five-judge Constitution bench the issue of reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgement that a mosque was not integral to Islam which had arisen during the hearing of Ayodhya land dispute. "This is a victory for ram bhakts. Since the masjid is not an essential part of Islam, therefore, it can be shifted somewhere else," Swamy said. Asserting that the path to build Ram temple in Ayodhya has been paved, Swamy said it should take more than one month for the Supreme Court to give judgement on the decades-long dispute. Swamy said Hindu's right to worship at Ram Janmabhoomi stood at a higher pedestal than the dispute over the ownership of the site between contending parties. "Hindus have a fundamental right to pray in a place where Lord Ram was born. Sunni Wakf Board's property right cannot be bigger than Hindus' right to pray," he said. By a majority 2-1 judgement, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea for referring the Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid issue to a larger Constitution Bench and referred the case to a three-judge bench to be set up that will begin hearing from October 29. However, in a dissenting ruling, Justice Abdul Nazeer said the judgement in the 1994 Ismail Farooqi case needed reconsideration and the matter should be referred to a larger seven-judge bench. The majority judgement on Thursday held that a newly constituted bench will commence hearing from October 29 on a batch of petitions filed by both the sides -- Hindu and Muslim stakeholders -- challenging the 2010 judgement trifurcating the disputed site into three parts for Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and the original Muslim litigant. The issue whether mosque is integral to Islam had cropped up when a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was hearing a batch of appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court's 2010 verdict. (with PTI inputs)