Ayodhya judgment becomes the law of the land; 135-year-dispute gets final closure

A 135-year-old dispute that has been pending before the top court for a decade has been settled forever on Thursday. The five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S Abdul Nazeer, and Sanjiv Khanna heard the reviews at 1:40 pm in-chamber; not an open court hearing. After a 15-minute brief consultation, the 19 reviews filed in the top court were dismissed. Thirty-two days after the landmark SC verdict, the reviews have been dismissed.

Read: VHP Issues Appeal As Supreme Court Dismisses All Ayodhya Review Petitions

What SC said on November 9, 2019

The Supreme Court ordered the disputed land (2.77 acres) to be handed over to a trust (to be created by the Government of India) to build the Ram temple. The court also ordered the government to give an alternate 5 acres of land in another place to the Sunni Waqf Board for the purpose of building a mosque.

Review pleas

The apex court dismissed a total of 19 review petitions in the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi case.

1) Mohammad Siddiq
2) Farooq Ahmed 
3) Maulana Mufti Hasbullah Misbadin 
4) Haji Mahboob Ahmad
5) Maulana Mahfuzarrahman
6) Haji Asad Ahmed
7) All India Hindu Mahasabha 
8) Shia Central Board. 
9) Dr. Muhammad Ayub
10) Tehreek Farukh A. Islam
11) Abdul Anees Ansari
12) Social Democratic Party of India 
13) Ambareesh Kumar
14)  Samrat Priyadarshi 
15) Youth Foundation of India
16) Indian National League
17) Prabhat Patnaik 
18) Dal Chand Kapil 
19) Nirmohi Akhada

A case that has sentiments of a billion Indians attached to it - I remember covering the High Court judgment in 2010 in Lucknow - Now that closure has come, it should be unanimously accepted by all.

Read: Inspection Visits To Ayodhya Site Stopped After SC Verdict, Muslim Litigants Complain

The SC order

In a one paragraph order, the court said, "Applications for listing of Review Petitions in open Court are dismissed. We have carefully gone through the Review Petitions and the connected papers filed therewith. We do not find any ground, whatsoever, to entertain the same. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed."

Read: Ayodhya Verdict: UP Shia Central Waqf Board Objects To Allotment Of 5-acre Land To Sunnis

What this means

The Ayodhya judgment becomes the law of the land. The Ayodhya dispute gets final closure. The law of the land has been made once and for all. The communal politicization of this case won't work. It is time for divisive political players to not communalise India's sentiments.

Read: Supreme Court Dismisses All 18 Ayodhya Review Pleas; Prashant Bhushan's Not Entertained

(Rhythm Anand Bhardwaj is the Editor - Legal, Republic Media Network. She has over a decade's experience in covering courts, politics and scams. She has covered ICJ hearings at the Hague, extradition hearings at London, and has also reported from Kabul. She has done in-depth investigations into scams that outraged India. She was also a Supreme Court Lawyer. She believes that hard work and faith leads to success. She can be reached on Twitter @Rhythms22)