TWO SISTERS CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF LAND OFFERED FOR MOSQUE IN AYODHYA

LUCKNOW: Two Delhi-based sisters moved the Allahabad High Court Wednesday claiming the ownership of five-acre land allotted to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque in Ayodhya. The petition before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC was filed in the court’s registry and is likely to come up for hearing on February 8.

Rani Kapoor alias Rani Baluja and Rama Rani Punjabi have said in the writ petition that their father Gyan Chandra Punjabi had come to India during partition and settled in Faizabad (now Ayodhya) district. They have claimed that their father was allotted 28-acre land in Dhannipur village by the Nazul Department for five years which he continued to possess beyond that period. Later, his name was included in the revenue records. However, his name was struck down from the records against which their father filed an appeal before the Additional Commissioner which was allowed. The petitioners further claimed that the consolidation officer again removed their father’s name from the records. Against the order of the consolidation officer, an appeal was preferred before the Settlement Officer of Consolidation, Sadar, Ayodhya, but without considering the said petition, the authorities have allotted five-acre of their 28-acre land to the Waqf Board for mosque, they said. The petitioners have demanded the authorities be restrained from transferring the land to Waqf Board till pendency of dispute.PTI