‘Babri Masjid not a Sunni property’:

‘Babri Masjid not a Sunni property’:

Context

• The Central Shia Waqf Board on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging a 1946 trial court order ruling Babri Masjid to be a Sunni property.

Petition filed

• The move came a day after the Board filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court laying its claim on the ownership of Babri Masjid.
• It had suggested to the court that another mosque, built in a Muslim-dominated area at a “reasonable distance” from the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi, should replace the demolished Babri Masjid.

The arguments

• The Board said there are local affirmations that Babar came to Ayodhya in 1528 AD and halted there for a week.
• It was during his regime that the Janamsthan temple was destroyed and on its site a mosque was built using largely the materials of the old structure.
• The Shia Board said the trial ignored the fact that a Shia noble in Babar’s court, Abdul Mir Baqi, “created” the Babri Masjid with his own money.
• This made Baqi, and not Babar, the wakif of Babri Masjid. The trial court itself, the Shia Board argues, mentions that Baqi’s successors were mutawallis of the mosque.