SC: Report on ruins can’t be rejected, interpretation key
NEW DELHI: The Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) 2003 report on the disputed site in Ayodhya, indicating the presence of ruins of a temple beneath the Babri Masjid, will have to be given due weightage and cannot be rejected as demanded by Muslim parties, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
However, different interpretations of it may be possible, the court added.
These remarks were made by Justice DY Chandrachud, one of the five judges on the bench, when senior advocate Meenakshi Arora termed ASI’s report “hypothetical”, based on inferences, and which cannot be treated as evidence. Another judge, Justice SA Bobde, said the court is “conscious that both sides are relying on inference” and added that the question was which is “valid” and “more reasonable”.
“There are a lot of assumptions and presumptions in this report and the court is not bound to accept it which is advisory in nature and amounted to just an opinion,” Arora said.
Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphde, also representing a Muslim party, said that the decision of courts below in the 1885 suit filed by Ayodhya resident Raghubar Das held that a mosque existed at the site and Hindus had only limited rights. This decision bound the entire Hindu community and the principle of res judicata refrained them from raising the plea once again, he added.
At this Justice Bobde asked Naphade whether a decision on a suit filed by someone who has nothing to do with the community but is instigated by some to file the case can be binding on the community.
Naphde replied that if such a view is taken then there will never be an end to litigation in a country that has many faiths.
On Thursday, the Muslim parties had made a U-turn on questioning the authorship of the summary of the 2003 ASI report, which had held that a massive structure pre-existed the Babri Masjid, and apologised to the top court for wasting its time in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
Advancing of arguments will recommence on September 30.
More than a dozen appeals were filed against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. The five-judge SC bench started holding daily hearings from August this year to fasttrack the case that has been pending for decades after an SC-appointed mediation panel failed to develop a consensus among the parties to arrive at an amicable resolution.