On wednesday, Supreme Court restored criminal conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders, including L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti in the Babri Masjid demolition case. Judges have also ordered daily hearings to ensure a verdict is delivered within two years. According to ANI Supreme Court allowed CBI’s appeal challenging withdrawal of conspiracy charges against Senior BJP leaders including L K Advani on the case of demolition of the disputed mosque on December 6, 1992.
Babri Masjid Case: SC allowed CBI's appeal challenging withdrawal of conspiracy charges against Senior BJP leaders including L K Advani pic.twitter.com/DF6O2VgIRr
— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2017
Babri Masjid Case: SC excludes Kalyan Singh. Trial has to be completed in two years.
— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2017
History of Babri Masjid
Babri Masjid was a mosque in Ayodhya, India. Located in Faizabad district, it was one of the largest mosques in the Uttar Pradesh state. According to the mosque’s inscriptions, it was built in 1528–29 CE (935 AH) by Mir Baqi, on orders of the Mughal emperor Babur (after whom it is named). The mosque was located on a hill known as Ramkot (“Rama’s fort”). According to a section of Hindus, the Mughals destroyed a structure marking the birthplace of Rama (Ram Janmabhoomi) to build the mosque, a claim denied by the Muslims. The political, historical and socio-religious debate over the history of the site and whether a previous temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque, is known as the Ayodhya dispute.
- In 1528 Babri mosque was built on a site which few Hindus claimed that was the birth place of Lord Ram. Then after sometime in 1853 religiuos violence incidents took place at the mosque.
- In 1859, British colonial administration built a fence to separate the places of worship, allowing the inner court to be used by Muslims and the outer court by Hindus. Then in 1949 Idols of Lord Rama being noticed inside the mosque, it was noted that it was llegedly placed there by Hindus because of this Muslims protested against the act and both parties file civil suits. The government marked it as a disputed area and locked it up.
- Then in 1984 a committee was formed by Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP) to build a temple in his honour in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani, headed the campaign. After this District judge ordered to opened the gates of the disputed area to allow Hindus to worship there. On the other side Muslims were also set up their Babri Mosque Action Committee to protest.
- Then in 1989 Vishwa Hindu Parishad laid the foundation of a Ram temple on land adjacent to the disputed mosque and then in 1990 VHP volunteers partially damaged the mosque. Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar tried to resolve the dispute through negotiations, which failed the next year.
- 1992 Kalyan Singh took steps to support the movement such as making entry into area easier, promising no firing on Karsevaks, opposing decision of central government to send Central Police force in the area, etc. In July, several thousand Karsevaks assembled in the area and the work for maintenance of temple started. This activity was stopped after intervention of the prime minister.
- In 1992, 6 December the Babri Mosque was demolished by a gathering of near 200,000 Karsevaks. Communal riots across India followed. On 16 December after the Ten days of the demolition, the Congress government at the Centre, headed by PV Narasimha Rao, set up a commission of inquiry under Justice Liberhan.
- In 1993 three months after being constituted, the Liberhan Commission began investigations into who and what led to the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
In 2001 tensions rose on the anniversary of the demolition of the mosque as the VHP reaffirmed its resolve to build a temple at the site. - Then in 2002, 27 February at least 58 people were killed in Godhra, Gujarat, in an attack on a train believed to be carrying Hindu volunteers from Ayodhya. Riots followed in the state and over 2000 people were unofficially reported to have died in these.
- In 2003 court ordered a survey to find out whether a temple to Lord Ram existed on the site. In August, the survey presented evidence of a temple under the mosque. Muslim groups disputed the findings. Then September a court ruled that seven Hindu leaders, including some prominent BJP leaders, should stand trial for inciting the destruction of the Babri Mosque.
- In November 2004 Uttar Pradesh court ruled that an earlier order which exonerated LK Advani for his role in the destruction of the mosque should be reviewed.
- In 2007 Supreme Court refused to admit a review petition on the Ayodhya dispute.
- In 2009 the Liberhan Commission, which was instituted ten days after the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992, submitted its report on 30 June — almost 17 years after it began its inquiry. Its contents were not made public.
- In 30 September 2010, Allahabad High Court pronounces its verdict on four title suits relating to the Ayodhya dispute on 30 September 2010. Ayodhya land to be divided into three parts. 1/3 goes to Ram Lalla represented by Hindu Maha Sabha, 1/3 to Sunni Wakf Board, 1/3 goes to Nirmohi Akhara. Then in December the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and Sunni Waqf Board moved to the Supreme Court of India, challenging part of the Allahabad High Court’s verdict.
- In 2011, Supreme Court of India stayed the high court order splitting the disputed site in three parts and said that status quo will remain. The two judge bench of Supreme Court remarked that the HC verdict was surprising as no party wanted a split of the site.
- In 2016, Supreme Court permitted BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to intervene in the pending matters related to the Ayodhya dispute with his plea seeking construction of Ram temple at the site of the demolished disputed structure.
- In 2017 March 6 Apex court with a bench of Justices, Nariman and PC Ghose heard a CBI plea to withdrawal conspiracy charges against the top politicians but the court indicated that the charges won’t be dropped.
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