The government omitted key facts in application to SC for undisputed land in Ayodhya

On 29 January, the central government moved an application in the Supreme Court seeking permission to handover a part of the land near the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya, which it had acquired in 1993, to its original owners. But the centre’s submissions to the apex court do not stand scrutiny—they falsely identify the Ram Janam Bhoomi Nyas, a trust floated by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to oversee the construction of the temple, as the original owners of the land. The submissions fail to acknowledge that the state government is the owner of the land—which the central government acquired from it in 1993—and that even the state’s initial acquisition of the land is facing legal challenge.

The land in question is approximately 42 acres of a plot measuring 67 acres that the central government had acquired in the aftermath of the demolition of Babri Masjid by Hindu communalists on 6 December 1992. In its application, the central government claimed that the Ram Janam Bhoomi Nyas is the owner of the 42-acre land. The Nyas, however, is merely a lease-holder of the land, which the Uttar Pradesh government acquired during the late 1980s for developing a “Ram Katha Park” to promote tourism in Ayodhya. On 20 March 1992, the then Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state leased this land to the Nyas—for a rent of one rupee per annum—to develop the Ram Katha Park.

What is more significant is that even the state government’s acquisition of this land is disputed. In 1990, the individuals from whom the Uttar Pradesh government had originally acquired the land challenged the acquisition in the Faizabad district court, claiming that they were not granted proper compensation. Vinit Maurya, a resident of Ayodhya, told me his family was among the original owners whose land was taken by the state government, and that they lost 11 acres due to the acquisition. Of the total land acquired by the state government, “29 acres belonged to 22 original owners who were residents of Ayodhya,” Maurya said. “My family was one of those 22 families.”