India: Court orders mediation on Babri Mosque dispute

CHANDIGARH, India

India’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a controversial Muslim-Hindu dispute concerning a mosque in northern India would be subject to mediation by a panel led by a former judge of the country’s highest court, local media reported Friday.

The three-member panel will mediate on the Babri Mosque in the city of Ayodhya and is to be headed by Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifullah with the other members being spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and mediation expert Sriram Panchu, according to local broadcaster News18.

"The mediation process will be held in Faizabad district [in Uttar Pradesh state] and has to be completed within eight weeks," it said.

Earlier this week, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi announced it had postponed its decision on the matter after hearing both Muslim and Hindu petitioners on Wednesday.

After declaring its ruling on Friday, it said mediation efforts would remain confidential and media would be barred from reporting on the talks which were limited to eight-weeks.

The decision to initiate a time-bound mediation process without media coverage was welcomed by President of the New Delhi-based Muslim Political Council Tasleem Rahmani who told Anadolu Agency he had, however, reservations on the panel’s membership.

"It is highly strange to appoint Sri Sri Ravi as one of the mediators from civil society," said Rahmani, adding that he had a history of calling for the grounds to be unconditionally given to Hindus and for a replacement mosque to be built elsewhere outside the city.

Babri Mosque dispute

The Babri Mosque is said to have been built by Mughal Emperor Babur in 1526.

In 1885, a Hindu religious body filed a case in a Faizabad court asking for permission to construct a temple to honor the Hindu deity Ram inside the premises of the Babri Mosque. The permission was denied.

In 1949, a group of Hindus entered the premises of the mosque and installed an idol of Ram there. Declaring the area disputed land, the then-government placed the premises under lockdown with the idol remaining inside with one official and one Hindu appointed as stewards of grounds.

The district administration of Faizabad, under which Ayodhya city is administered, opened the premises to Hindus in 1986, allowing them to carry out their rituals.

The situation remained calm until December 1992, when thousands of activists belonging to extremist Hindu groups and political parties along with BJP leaders entered Babri Mosque and demolished the Babri Mosque, erecting a Hindu temple in its place.

The dispute has been languishing in India’s legal system for years with no final outcome in sight.