The months of vacillation whether to accept or reject the Supreme Court’s offer of a 5-acre land to build a mosque at an alternative site in Ayodhya drew to an end as the Sunni Waqf Board on Monday decided to accept the allotment of 5 acres of land suggested by the top court in the Ram Janmabhoomi and has also decided to build a Mosque on it.
The Sunni Waqf Board has accepted the five-acre land near Ayodhya to build mosque.
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 24, 2020
Earlier, the Board had shown reluctance in accepting the court offer after suggestions poured in from several quarters asking it to reject the offer made by the apex court. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi too had requested the Board to reject the offer, saying that they were fighting for their rights and they don’t need any land in charity.
The Sunni Board’s demurral to accept 5-acre-land was strengthened after the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) decided to file a review petition in the Ayodhya dispute case. Though the Board said that it was not going to file a review petition, however, it was not sure to accept the 5-acres land to build a mosque in Ayodhya elsewhere.
Ending the longstanding dispute, the Supreme Court of India passed a historic judgment granting the then contentious piece of 2.77 acres land to Hindus for building a Ram Temple while offering a 5-acre land to Muslim plaintiffs to build a mosque at an alternative site. Shia Waqf Board had said that the land should be given to them if the Sunni Waqf Board rejects the offer.
However, months after being in the limbo of indecision, the Sunni Waqf Board has graciously accepted the 5-acre-land offered by the court. Stating that the rejection of 5-acre-land as “out of option”, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board on Monday said it will build a mosque as well as an Indo-Islamic research centre, a hospital and a library on the five-acre plot allotted to it.
One of the members of the Sunni Waqf Board, Farooqui said that the Board did not have the choice of rejecting the plot of 5-acres-land allotted to it as it would amount to contempt of court.
Following the SC verdict, the central government had asked the UP government to allot five acres of land to the Sunni Waqf Board. The allotment was made after UP cabinet’s meeting on February 5. As per the allotment letter, the Board has been allocated with a plot at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya’s Sohawal area, on the Ayodhya-Lucknow highway about 20 km from the district headquarters.
