Babri Mosque case: Indian court to announce verdict today

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India is scheduled to announce the verdict in the Babri Mosque case today at 10:30 am.

A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will deliver its judgment. 

The high court had ordered a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres land in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

The Bench, other than Chief Justice Gogoi, comprised Justices S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer.

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The hearings began on 6th August after a mediation attempt across the religious divide to heal hearts and minds failed to deliver.

The testimonies in the appeals alone ran into 54 volumes consisting of 13,426 pages which have been translated into English and filed by Uttar Pradesh government. There are a total of 533 exhibits translated by various parties.

Hindu extremists destroyed the historic mosque in 1992 triggering massive riots in India. The violence left tens of hundreds of people dead.

For over a century, Hindus and Muslims have been in a tussle over the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Hindus claim the mosque was the birthplace of Lord Ram and was built after the destruction of a temple by Muslim invader Babur in 1528.

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On the other hand, Muslims say they offered prayers at the mosque until December 1949, when some idols of Lord Ram were placed in the mosque.

British rulers fenced the area as early as 1859 to as a preemptive measure and the government of India locked its gates in 1949.

On 6th December 1992, the mosque was razed to the ground by a mob of thousands, triggering riots and violence that killed over 2,000 people in India.

Hindu and Muslim groups have failed to resolve the dispute through negotiations over the years, and a court decision in 2010 to divide the 2.77-acre site between one Muslim group and two Hindu groups was opposed by both sides.