(LiveMint)
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the Supreme Court is set to begin its final hearing in the Ayodhya dispute case on Tuesday.
The case will be heard by a bench comprising chief justice Dipak Misra and justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer. The bench which has been specially constituted for the case, will be hearing a total of 13 appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad high court in four civil suits.
The move comes at a time when the demolition of Babri Masjid completes 25 years on Wednesday. The Ram Janmabhoomi movement initiated by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leading to the demolition is considered a historical event that led to a paradigm shift in Indian politics and made cultural nationalism the central theme of electoral politics for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Two and a half decades later, BJP is currently in power in most of the North Indian states. A three-judge bench of the Allahabad high court in 2010 had ruled that the 2.77 acre land be partitioned equally among three parties—the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.