NEW DELHI (PTI): The Indian Supreme Court July 22 asked northern Uttar Pradesh state to “unconditionally” halt construction of the proposed temple at Ayodhya while frenzied Hindu volunteers ignored the order and continued construction work near the disputed shrine.
The two-judge apex court bench gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s party), which rules Uttar Pradesh, 24 hours to hold consultations with militant Hindu leaders before enforcement of the order.
Meanwhile, frenzied volunteers of fundamentalist Hindu party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), vowed to counter any move aimed at stopping the construction.
A division bench comprising Justice M,N. Venkatachallaiah and Justice G.N. Ray offered to the state government that it would seek the constitution of a larger bench by the chief justice to decide the whole issue of acquisition of land including the related matter of whether a temple could be built on it in accordance with law.
But first the state government should undertake to halt all construction work in progress now, they said.
The VHP, backed by the Right Wing BJP is perusing a campaign to build a temple replacing a delapidated 16th century mosque heedless of the government appeals, warnings and court orders.
Justice Venkatachallaiah agreed with the stale government’s council that the crux of the problem was the validity of acquisition of land around the disputed Structure.
This is a matter to be decided page of construction, the court cannot countenance any proposal by the state government on the issue,” Justice Venkatachallaiah observed.
However, reacting to the Supreme Court order, the BJP asserted the Uttar Pradesh government had never said it would disobey court orders.
The party spokesman J.P. Mathur said the Uttar Pradesh government was unable to implement court orders because of the possibility of grave law and order situation. About the Center’s contemplated action against the state government on the non-compliance with court orders, the party vice president K.R.Malkani said “any such action would be wholly misconceived.”
The Congress-I welcomed the supreme court order and said it was now obligatory on the Uttar Pradesh government to see that all construction activity was stopped.
Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha (Lower House) and Rajya Sabha (Upper House) were adjourned Wednesday without conducting any legislative business as the Ayodhya issue rocked parliament for the third successive day.
In the Lok Sabha, the entire proceedings lasted merely eight minutes. Heated arguments went on for some time between BJP and non-BJP members with the ruling party members occasionally joining in.
In the last three days, members of parliament belonging to Ruling Congress (I), Centrist Janata Dal (People’s Party) and Left Parties in both, upper and lower, houses sent the federal parliament into chaos calling for government action to stop the ongoing construction and for the dismissal of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
In the Rajya Sabha, members took up the issue as soon as the question hour was over asking home minister Chavan to make a Statement on the latest developments in Ayodhya. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Kalyan Singh, said the Center should hold talks with the saints and urged It to associate itself with the state In its efforts to Persuade them.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 31, 1992
