Rajeev Dhawan, representing one of the appellants in favor of rebuilding the Mosque in the Ram Janambhoomi dispute, waxed eloquence in the Supreme Court on how his soul had disappeared with the demolition of the Mosque but his heart is still there and claimed that Muslims and not Hindus should have been allowed to pray at the site because allegedly, the land belonged to Allah. He also argued about the centrality of the Mosque to Islam and the relationship between Muslims and the Mosque. He said that Hindus should not have been given permission to pray at Ram Janambhoomi and that denial of the right to pray at the site to Muslims was unjustifiable. He also suggested that if there were any decency left in our secular system, then the Mosque should be rebuilt.
These arguments presented by Rajeev Dhawan during the court proceedings were tweeted by Supreme Court lawyer J Sai Deepak today.
The Supreme Court in its hearing of the Ram Janambhoomi case has also declared that intervention applications by non-parties shall not be entertained at this stage. The Bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Mishra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer directed the registry not to entertain any intervention plea on the matter. All intervention petitions by third parties, excluding Subramanian Swamy’s writ petition seeking his fundamental right to pray at Ayodhya, has been dismissed.
Bench passing an order with respect to d intervention applications. Bench records objections of d parties to suit to d intervention applications. All intervention applications are rejected by the Court & registry has been directed to not take up such applications #Ramjanmabhoomi
— Sai Deepak J (@jsaideepak) March 14, 2018
A.M. Khan wanted both parties to reach a settlement through his intervention application. However, the Court ruled that he cannot compel both parties to come to a settlement and that both parties had the right to seek adjudication on the matter if they so desired. Mr Raju Ramachandran wanted the entire case to be referred to a larger bench. However, the Court rejected that request as well.
The Supreme Court had said in an earlier hearing had stated that the Bench will treat the whole dispute as solely a land dispute. Under such circumstances, it will be interesting to see to what extent the ‘land belongs to Allah” argument will hold. The next date for argument has been fixed for the 23rd of March, 2018.
