Delhi / Muslim Personal Law Board to file review plea against SC's Ayodhya verdict

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said on Sunday it will file a review petition within 30 days against the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit.

The top court had last week ruled in favour of a Ram temple on the disputed 2.77-acre plot in Ayodhya. The court had also directed the central government to allot a five-acre plot of land in Ayodhya for construction of a mosque.

AIMPLB said it will not accept the alternative five-acre land. “We feel that restitution by granting five acres of land, where fundamental values have been damaged to the extent of causing national shame, will not in any manner heal the wounds caused,” AIMPLB said after a meeting in Lucknow.

The board said mosques are essential for the religious practice of Muslims. “Building the same mosque at some other site in a situation like this is also not permissible as per Islamic law. Hence, we will file a review petition,” it said.

The crucial meeting of the board took place at Mumtaz Degree College in the Old City area of Lucknow.

A minister of the Uttar Pradesh government Mohsin Raza had earlier targeted AIMPLB’s Sunday meet in Lucknow, saying it was an attempt to sully the atmosphere. “People like Owaisi are playing with the sentiments of the people and trying to spoil the atmosphere,” Raza said.

“I fail to understand why this attempt is being made in Lucknow. Why is this NGO that calls itself the AIMPLB not holding its meeting in Hyderabad or Delhi? Who funds this NGO? It must be looked into?” he had asked.

AIMPLB was not a party to the title suit case and would need the backing at least one of the eight Muslim litigants to file a review petition.

Iqbal Ansari, whose father, Hashim Ansari, was one of the first and oldest litigants in the case, has decided not to challenge the Ayodhya verdict. Another Muslim litigant, Haji Mehboob, has also echoed similar sentiments.

Mohammad Umar, a third Muslim litigant, had said that he would abide by whatever decision AIMPLB takes at its meeting in Lucknow on Sunday. “There are some inconsistencies in the verdict and I feel there is a scope for correction. I will go by whatever my seniors in the AIMPLB tell me to do,” he said.

The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, too, has made its stand clear that it has accepted the verdict and there was no scope or ground to challenge it.