NEW DELHI - Indian Muslims get a blow from the Supreme Court of India.
SC on thursday declined to set up a larger bench for a relook of its 1994 verdict which held a "mosque is not an essential part of the practice of Islam" paving the way for the apex court to hear the politically sensitive main Ayodhya title suit from October 29.
Ruling that the earlier observation was made in the limited context of "land acquisition" during the hearing of the Ayodhya case, the top court in a 2-1 verdict made it clear it was not relevant for deciding the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute whose outcome will be eagerly awaited ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The RSS and the BJP welcomed the judgement and expressed confidence that a "just verdict" in the case will be reached at the earliest."We welcome this decision(to start the hearing) and are confident that a just verdict will be reached in the case at the earliest," the Sangh said in a statement.
A Muslim group had assailed the observations made by a five-judge Constitution bench in 1994 in the Ismail Faruqui case and had sought reconsideration of its observation that a mosque is not an essential part of Islam on the grounds that it has affected the decison of the High Court in the land dispute.