Lucknow, March 26
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court today refused to give additional time to the archaeologists carrying out excavation in Ayodhya to ascertain whether a temple existed at the site where mosque was built in the 16th century.
“The demand of the archaeologists was pre-mature.” said the three-member Bench. The Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI) was entrusted with the job and asked to complete digging within a month. The digging started on March12. The ASI had sought additional two months’ time to complete digging and 15 days’ time to complete the table work.
The court also struck down the appeal of Mr M.A. Hashmi, the main plaintiff in this case, who had pleaded that as Muslims had offered namaz at the site, where once stood a mosque, the digging should be stopped as it was against Islam.
The Bench, however, maintained that transparency should be maintained during excavation. It also ordered that an adequate number of Muslim labourers should also be deployed at the site. “To maintain transparency (in excavation), we direct the appointment of two observers who will monitor the excavation,” Mr Justice Bhawar Singh said while reading out the verdict. Other members of the Bench are Mr Justice S.R. Alam and Mr Justice S Narain.
State president of the BJP, Mr Vinay Katiyar, said the party respected the court judgement. “We want that excavation should be carried out to bring forth the truth whether a temple pre-existed at the Babri mosque site”, he said.
Mr Prabhu Narain Singh, incharge of the VHP in Uttar Pradesh, hailed the order saying that court had rejected the demand of some Muslims to stop excavation.
