Sunni Board won’t appeal Ayodhya verdict, undecided on accepting 5 acre land

The Sunni Central Waqf Board on Tuesday decided against filing an appeal against the November 9 verdict of the Supreme Court on the Ayodhya title dispute. The board, an original litigant in the Ayodhya title suit, has, however, put off a decision on the 5-acre land that the government has been ordered to give to them for building a mosque at an alternative site.

"The decision on the land will be taken after the government makes an offer," senior board member Abdul Razzaq Khan told reporters. Once the government makes an offer that would also indicate the location of the plot, the board will meet again, he said.

Abdul Razzaq Khan was among the few prominent voices within the board that had been nudging the body to file a review petition against the Supreme Court's verdict of November 9.

A five-judge bench led by former chief justice Ranjan Gogoi had cleared the construction of Ram Mandir in its verdict in favour of Ram Lalla Virajman. The constitution bench had also directed the Centre to allocate five-acre land to the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Ayodhya to compensate them for the wrongs committed including 1992 demolition of the mosque.

Many Muslim groups have called upon the board to reject the offer for land.

The Sunni Board's decision will not make much of a difference since more than three Muslim litigants in the title suit have already made up their mind to file a review petition against the Supreme Court's verdict.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has decided to assist them and rejected the offer to accept the five-acre land to construct a mosque.

At its meeting on November 17, the personal law board had also insisted that the offer for land to build the mosque cannot be accepted since building the same mosque at other site is not permissible in Islam.