Centre’s application to acquire excess land unjust: Muslim body

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 2

The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has said that the application moved by the Union Government in the Supreme Court in connection with the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya is unjust and an “emotional step that goes against national interest”.

The Union Government, on January 29, asked the Supreme Court to allow it to restore the acquired “superfluous” excess land adjacent to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid area to its rightful owners in Ayodhya after carving out the exact extent of land necessary to access the disputed area.

He said the government should withdraw its application and concentrate its basic constitutional obligations. It must honour the stay by the court and refrain from taking any step that would go against justice, he said.

  Addressing a press conference, Mohammad Salim Engineer, JIH general secretary, said it was well known that there were many cases related to the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute pending in court and it was a well-established norm that litigants in any case waited for the court to pronounce its judgement and accept it when it came.

  He said it was surprising that the government was becoming party to the dispute. “Because of this strange behaviour of the government, people will be justified in concluding that the government is abandoning its duty of providing justice to its citizens,” said Salim Engineer.

He said by moving an application in court for the acquired land, the BJP-led Centre wanted to please Hindu hardliners keeping in view the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. 

What govt had asked 

The Union Government, on January 29, asked the Supreme Court to allow it to restore the acquired “superfluous” excess land adjacent to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid area to its rightful owners in Ayodhya after carving out the exact extent of land necessary to access the disputed area.