PIL seeking govt representatives in Trust to manage 5-acre land given to Muslim community in lieu of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya dismissed

The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a PIL seeking directions to the Central Government to create a Trust to make provisions for the representation of Central and state government nominees belonging to the Sunni Muslim community in the Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust which may carry out construction work and manage the affairs of the five-acre plot allowed to the Muslim community pursuant to the apex court's order in the Ayodhya case.

The creation of the Trust with government's representative was sought in line with the "Shree Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra" created by the Central Government.

A bench led by Justice Rohinton F Nariman found no merit in the petition.

The plea filed by advocate Shishir Chaturvedi and Naga Sadhu of Hanuman Garhi Karunesh Kumar Shukla claimed that hundreds of person would visit at the site of Islamic Trust and it would also get contributions from within India as well as foreign countries.

"It would be in the public interest that Centre and State Government have all the relevant information about the working of the trust to maintain public order and to ensure that no malpractices take place and the funds are not mis-utilized or misappropriated by the Trust", the plea argued.

In November 2019, the Supreme Court in a unanimous verdict handed over the disputed site in Ayodhya, where the Babri mosque once stood, for the construction of a Ram temple and directed the Centre to allot a 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque.

It was also directed the Centre to formulate within three months a scheme to set up a trust and hand the land to it. Pursuant to it, Centre formed the "Shree Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra" to look after the affairs of construction of the Ram temple.

Later the UP state cabinet gave its approval to the proposal for the allotment of a five-acre plot to the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque as ordered by the Supreme Court in the Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid case on November 9 last year.