NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that the Ayodhya Act allowed the Hindu community a limited right to offer prayers and darshan at the makeshift temple as obtaining on January 7, 1993 while there was no curtailment on the rights of the Muslims. to worship at the disputed site because they had not offered prayers Since 1949, An analysis of the two separate judgments delivered by a five judge Constitution bench, on the Presidential reference in the Ayodhya case last week, indicates that the Acquisition Act which seeks to maintain the status quo ante regarding the offering of prayers and darshan at the makeshift temple cannot be construed as a slant in favor of the Hindu community and therefore ant secular. The judges said a reference to the comparative uses during the period between the demolition and January 7, 1993 by the two communities indicate that worship of the idols installed on the Ram Chabutra which stood on the disputed site within the courtyard of the disputed structure had been performed without any objection by the Muslims even prior to the shifting of those idols from the Chabutra into the disputed structure in December 1949. The judges pointed out that in ‘one of the suits filed in January 1950, the trial court passed interim orders whereby, the idols remained at the place where they were installed in 1949 and worship of the idols there by the Hindu devolves continued.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 4, 1994
