Mention Ayodhya plea after verdict on whether mosques integral to Islam: SC to Swamy

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to mention his plea, seeking enforcement of his fundamental right to pray at the disputed site in Ayodhya, after it pronounces its verdict on the question of whether mosques are integral to Islam.

On July 20, the special bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reserved its order on a plea by Muslim groups of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute seeking reconsideration by a larger bench on the observations made by it in a 1994 verdict that a mosque was not integral to Islam.

M Siddiq, one of the original litigants of the Ayodhya case who has died and is being represented through his legal heir, had assailed certain findings of the 1994 verdict in the case of M Ismail Faruqui holding that a mosque was not integral to the prayers offered by the followers of Islam.

The bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked Swamy to seek listing and urgent hearing of his plea on right to pray after the pronouncement of verdict in the main matter.

Swamy had moved the apex court seeking enforcement of his right earlier as well.

Swamy, at whose instance the sensitive land dispute case in Ayodhya was fast-tracked, had filed a separate petition stating that he had a fundamental right to offer hassle-free prayer at the birthplace of Lord Ram.

The special bench of the apex court has a total of 14 appeals filed against the high court judgement delivered in four civil suits.

A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.