India’s top court urges negotiated settlement to end Babri Masjid dispute

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Web Desk
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NEW DELHI: India’s top court on Tuesday urged all parties in the Babri Masjid - Ram Mandir dispute to resolve matters through a negotiated settlement.

The Indian chief justice J S Khekhar said he was ready to sit as an arbitrator in the dispute between Hindus and Muslims in India.

Khekhar asked the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy that he was ready to make any other Supreme Court judge available to serve as the arbitrator in the case if he wished.

The bench hearing the case asked all parties to compromise and “give up” some of their demands in order to reach a peaceful solution.

A 2010 judgment over the case by the Allahabad High court stated that the disputed 2.77 acres be partitioned equally among three parties: Muslims, Hindus and Nirmohi Akhar (a Hindu group).

Babri Masjid is one of the largest mosques in United Province of India, built on the Mughal Emperor Babar’s orders. According to a section of Hindus, the land where the mosque was built marks the birthplace of the Hindu god Raam, a claim denied by Muslims.

In November 1989, communal riots were sparked all over India killing thousands of people, after Hindu extremists demolished parts of the Babri mosque.