Sushree Mohanty
Two Delhi-based sisters from the capital city of Delhi have moved a petition before the Hon’ble High Court of Allahabad, claiming the ownership over a five-acre land allotted for the development of a mosque in Ayodhya.
The land was initially assigned to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for the construction and development of a mosque in Ayodhya as per the Supreme Court decision conveyed on November 7, 2019,in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque title suit.
The plea is submitted before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, in the court’s registry and is listed for hearing on February 8, 2021.
The petitioners, Rani Kapoor (alias Rani Baluja ) and Rama Rani Punjab have claimed that their father, Mr. Gyan Chandra Punjabi, had come to India in the year 1947 from Punjab (presently in Pakistan, before partition) and started to reside in Faizabad (now in Ayodhya) district.
They have asserted that their father was assigned a 28-acre land in Dhannipur town by the Nazul Department for five years; however, he continued to hold the possession of the said land beyond the prescribed period. Afterwards, his name was inserted on the revenue records, the applicants have claimed.
Subsequently, his name has removed the records against which an appeal was preferred before the Additional Commissioner, Ayodhya, by their father.
The decision came in their favour with the appeal being allowed, as per the claims of the petitioners in the present case.
The petitioners, in their application, have further alleged that the concerned officer again removed their father’s name from the documents during the consolidation proceedings and a second appeal was presented before the Settlement Officer of Consolidation, Sadar, Ayodhya.
However, the Settlement Officer of Consolidation passed an order allotting five-acre land out of the 28-acre land to Waqf Board for the construction of the mosque, without taking into consideration the pending appeal filed by the applicants.
The present petition carries the demand by the petitioners to restrain the transfer of the land to Sunni Waqf Board till the pendency of suit before the settlement official.