Terming the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case "a great travesty of justice,” retired SC Justice Rohinton Nariman (retd) disagreed with the reasoning of the Court granting the disputed land for construction of the Ram Mandir despite holding the demolition of the Babri Mosque on December 6, 1992 illegal. Various orders passed by the SC relating to the decades old dispute had culminated in the final verdict on November 9, 2019 by a five-member bench.
Nariman was speaking on "Secularism and the Indian Constitution,” as the inaugural lecture of the Ahmadi Foundation set up in memory of former Chief Justice of India (CJI) A. M. Ahmadi in New Delhi on December 5, 2024, reported The Times of India (ToI) on December 7.
The Ahmadi Foundation was established to preserve the legacy of Justice Aziz Mushabbar Ahmadi, the 26th CJI, who was known for advancing justice and upholding human rights. His biography, The Fearless Judge, by his granddaughter Insiyah Vahanvaty with forwards by retired CJI D. Y. Chandrachud and Nariman, was launched on this occasion.
Referring to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, which was upheld in the Ayodhya verdict, Nariman felt that this Act should be strictly enforced in every trial court where suits are being filed to claim the religious places of other communities in order to scotch religious disputes that are "popping up every day” and causing communal tension in the country. The law prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and requires the maintenance of the religious character of the places as they were on August 15, 1947.
Top: Justice Rohinton Nariman (retd);
above: Babri Masjid Photo: Wikipedia
He stated that "applying these five pages in this very judgment and having it read out in every district court and high court” would stem the trend "because these five pages are a declaration by the Supreme Court which binds each of them,” ToI noted. Sherene Vakil