Verdict will have no impact on title suit: AIMPLB

LUCKNOW: The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Thursday said that the Supreme Court judgment would have no bearing on the main case related to Babri-Masjid-Ram Janmbhoomi pending before the apex court.

“We would like to dispel the notion that today’s SC verdict is not about the title suit. New CJI will appoint a bench which will hear the title suit from October 29,” said AIMPLB joint secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani.

Another board member and prominent Lucknow cleric Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahli said the SC verdict had two positive aspects. “The court has made it clear that the verdict in Ismail Farooqi case of 1994 will have no impact on the Ayodhya case. It also conveys that the title suit will now be decided on the basis of facts and evidence before the court,” he said. He said political parties should refrain from giving a political hue to the issue.

On the apex court’s refusal to refer the matter of “mosque being an integral part of Islam or for offering prayers”, the cleric said there was no doubt over that. “It is an established fact from religious point of view that a mosque is an essential part of Islam,” he said and cited the “once a mosque always a mosque” stand adopted by the Muslim clergy. “In any case, the apex court has made it clear that the observations in the 1994 case were not relevant in this matter,” he said.