E-Paper
Many litigants agree to file review petition
Ayodhya:
Ayodhya:
A number of Muslim litigants in the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid title suit have agreed to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against its November 9 decision that favoured the construction of Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town. The petition is likely to be filed on Friday or Monday by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on behalf of the litigants, they said.
“We have decided to file the review petition in the Supreme Court. It is our right. When the court has also accepted that there is no proof related with mosque being constructed by demolishing a temple at the site, then why we should not file a review petition,” asked Haji Mehboob, one of the petitioners from Ayodhya.
Two prominent Muslim litigants – the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and Iqbal Ansari – have refused to file a review petition. The development comes days after the Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind asked the Supreme Court to review its judgment on the basis of 14 “errors” in the judgment. “We filed a review as the verdict is beyond understanding. Justice has not been done,” JUH chief Maulana Arshad Madani had said.
On November 9, a five-judge SC bench headed by then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, and including the current CJI SA Bobde, and justices Ashok Bhushan, DY Chandrachud and S Abdul Nazeer gave the title of the 2.77-acre land to Ram Lalla Virajman, the child deity, and awarded five acres of land at an alternative site for a mosque.
A review petition must be filed within a month of the judgment. Such petitions are usually heard in judges’ chambers except in cases involving death penalty or in cases where the court allows hearing in open court . The petition is heard by the same bench of judges who delivered the original judgment. If any of the judges on that bench is unavailable, then a new judge is nominated to the bench by the CJI.
Other than Mehboob, Maulana Mahfoozurahman, who is represented by Khalid Ahmad Khan; Mohammad Umar, and Maulana Misbahiddeen, who is represented by Badshah Khan, have also decided to back the AIMPLB petition. But Ansari continued to maintain his opposition to a review petition.
