The Supreme Court in a historic verdict on 9th November 2019 has backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The Supreme Court has also ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town. With this verdict, the Supreme Court has settled a fractious issue that goes back more than a century,

Key Points of the Ayodhya Verdict:

• A five-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the faith of the Hindus that Lord Ram was born at the site was undisputed.
• The ruling also cleared that the destruction of the 16th century three-domed structure by Hindu kar sevaks, who want to build a Ram temple there, was a wrong act that “must be remedied”.
• The Supreme court asked the government to allot a five-acre plot in a “prominent” location in the holy town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh for constructing a new mosque.
• The disputed 2.77-acre plot will for now remain with a Central government receiver, who will hand it over to a government-created trust that must be created within three months. The trust will be tasked with the construction of the temple.
• The judgement was widely welcomed by Hindu politicians and groups.
• The Muslim leaders have said that they will accept the verdict, even though they described it as flawed.

About Ayodhya Dispute:

• The dispute over the site of Babri Masjid, a three-domed mosque built by or at the behest of Moghul emperor Babur, dates back centuries with Hindus contending that the invading Muslim armies had razed an existing Ram temple to erect the mosque.
• However, it turned into a legal dispute in 1885 when a mahant went to court seeking permission to build a canopy outside the mosque. The plea was dismissed.
• In December 1949, unidentified miscreants spirited an idol of Lord Ram into the mosque.
• The structure was destroyed by a large mob of kar sevaks on December 6, 1992.
• The demolition of the Mosque triggered nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots, more so in north India and Mumbai, which left many hundreds dead.
• Subsequently, Muslim extremist elements angered by the demolition and the riots, carried out a series of bombings in Mumbai on March 12, 1993, which left hundreds dead.

The apex court bench comprised of Chief Justice Gogoi, Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.