Sunni Waqf Board to challenge Ayodhya order today

The Sunni Central Waqf Board will file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court challenging the judgment of the Allahabad High Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suits.

Advocate Zafaryab Jilani,who appeared for the Board in the High Court,confirmed that they were moving the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The Waqf Board,one of the original litigants in the four suits since 1941,is aggrieved by the fact that the High Court judgment showed the precedence of one faith over another,he said.

The petition primarily argues that the High Court verdict delivered by a three-judge Lucknow Bench solely bases its judgment on a flight of faith rather than documentary evidence to show that Lord Ram was born exactly under the central dome of the masjid.

To give prominence to the factor of belief and faith over the Indian Evidence Act,a parliamentary statute,is a violation by itself, Jilani said.

The petition argues that the judgment violates the fundamental principles under Articles 25 and 26 freedom to practice religion of choice.

The judgment satisfies the Hindu litigants right to property by declaring the birthplace inside the masjid,and thus,riding roughshod over the Muslims right to practice their religion.

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Articles 25 and 26 give equal rights to all faiths. One faith cannot suffer at the expense of another, the lawyer said.

The petition,Jilani says,banks on documents placed on record by the opposing side,Nirmohi Akhara,which shows that the Hindu claim to Ram Janmabhoomi within the inner boundaries of the masjid came alive only after 1941.

Their documents prove that till 1941 they believed that the Ram Chhabutra was

the birthplace of Lord Ram and not the mosque itself, Jilani says.