Breaking news: Islamic group Popular Front of India moves Supreme Court of India, pleads to be heard in Ayodhya case

New Delhi: Islamic organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) on Friday (March 6, 2020) filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court of India in the Ayodhya case. In its petition, the PFI stated that even though it was not one of the parties in the main Ayodhya and dispute case, yet the verdict delivered by the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on November 9, 2019, adversely affected its rights.

The petition also pleads that it should be heard in an open court while also arguing that the apex court should put a stay on its verdict in the Ayodhya case which granted the ownership of the 2.77 acres of land which was at the centre of the dispute to the Hindus, paving the way for the construction of a Ram Temple.

PFI is the second organisation to file a curative petition in the case with the first one being by the Uttar Pradesh-based Peace Party.

The decades-long land dispute in Ayodhya came to an end with the November 9, 2019, verdict by the Supreme Court. According to the verdict, the Hindus have the right over the 2.77 acres of land while Muslims will get 5 acres of land at an alternative site in Ayodhya.

The judgment was delivered by a bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and included justices DY Chandrachud, Sharad Arvind Bobde (the current CJI), S Abdul Nazeer and Ashok Bhushan.

"Faith of Hindus is undisputed that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya," was one of the major observations of the court, which also ruled that "Babri mosque wasn`t constructed on a vacant land". "An underlying structure did exist," the court had ruled while adding that it was not of the Islamic religion. Artefacts, architectural evidence had distinct non-Islamic nature butt the "ASI report hasn`t said the underlying structure was a specific temple", the verdict stated.

As per the verdict, the trust to finalise details for the construction of the Ayodhya Ram Temple was set up on February 5, 2020. K Parasaran is the first member of the trust while Ayodhya District Magistrate (DM) Anuj Kumar Jha is the convening member. The seven other permanent members are -  Shankaracharya Vasudevanand Maharaj, Parmanand Jimaharaja Haridwar, Swami Govindgiri Ji Pune, Vimalendra Mohan Pratap Mishra, Dr Anil Mishra Homeopathic Ayodhya, Dr Kamaleshwar Chaupal Patna, and Mahant Dhinedra Das Nirmohi Akhara.