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Ram Lalla juristic person, says SC

NEW DELHI:The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Ram Lalla is a juristic person, but ‘Asthan Sri Ram Janam Bhumi’ is not.

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Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 9

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Ram Lalla is a juristic person, but ‘Asthan Sri Ram Janam Bhumi’ is not.

“The recognition of ‘Asthan Sri Ram Janam Bhumi’ as a juristic person would result in the extinguishment of all competing proprietary claims to the land in question. The extinguishing of competing claims would arise not by virtue of settled legal principles, but purely on the basis of the faith and belief of the devotees. This cannot be countenanced in law,” a five-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, said.

“A Swayambhu is premised on the physical manifestation of the divine to which faith and belief attaches. Absent the faith and belief of the devotees, the disputed land holds no distinguishing features that could be recognised by this court as evidence of a manifestation of God at the disputed site.

“The purpose for which juristic personality is conferred cannot be ‘evolved’ into a Trojan horse that permits, on the basis of religious faith and belief, the extinguishing of all competing proprietary claims over property as well as stripping the property itself of the essential characteristic of immoveable property,” said the Bench, which also included Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer.

During the course of arguments spread over 40 days, some of the Hindu parties had contended that the entire Janmabhoomi was a juristic person.

However, rejecting the argument, the Bench said, “In a country like ours where contesting claims over property by religious communities are inevitable, our courts cannot reduce questions of title, which fall firmly within the secular domain and outside the rubric of religion, to a question of which community’s faith is stronger. The second plaintiff in Suit 5 — ‘Asthan Shri Ram Janam Bhumi’ is not a juristic person.” 

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