Waqf Board to move SC against Ayodhya verdict

The Sunni Waqf Board on Tuesday announced its formal decision to challenge in Supreme Court the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Ayodhya title suit.

Shutting possibility of an out-of-court settlement, the decision to move the apex court was taken at a board meeting of the Sunni Waqf Board.

?On the basis of the legal advice from experts, it was decided at a board meeting to challenge the verdict in the apex court,? Zafar Ahmad Farooqui, chairman of the Waqf Board, said.

He added that no date has been fixed for filing the appeal.

Farooqui also clarified that no person except him was authorized to speak on behalf of the Waqf Board.

?I am the sole spokesman of this board and nobody other than me is authorised to speak on behalf of this organisation,? he said.

Earlier, as initiative by 90-year-old Hashim Ansari for a negotiated settlement was criticized by the Waqf Board.

Expressing displeasure that Ansari?s move, Zafaryab Jilani, counsel of the Sunni Central Waqf Board and Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) convenor, said, ?Ansari is just an individual litigant; he is no authority on behalf of the Waqf Board which is the key contestant.?

Ansari has started talks with Mahant Gyan Das, president of All India Akhara Parishad, for an out-of-settlement of the issue.

Nirmohi Akhara, one of the litigants, was also approached by Ramlalla Virajmaan, the third litigant, for cooperation in construction of the proposed Ram temple, to which the former had expressed its support.

Ansari was the first Muslim to stake a legal claim to the Babri Masjid after it was usurped by Hindu mobs on the intervening night of December 22-23, 1949.

On the other hand, Nirmohi Akhara sought legal right to offer prayers at the disputed site way back in 1885.

Treading cautiously on the communal minefield, a three-member Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday (September 30) passed a verdict upholding the Hindu claim that the disputed site is the birthplace of Lord Rama but ruled that the land would be divided into three parts with one third going to the Muslims along with one third for the Hindus.

Rejecting the Sunni Waqf Board and Nirmohi Akhara?s title suit, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court said Hindu deity Lord Ram was born indeed on the disputed Ayodhya site, bringing a temporary closure on the 60-year-old dispute since the judgement can now be challenged in the Supreme Court.