Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea Seeking To Declare Ayodhya Ram Mandir Land As 'Buddha Vihar'

Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha on Friday refused to entertain a petition seeking to declare the land in Ayodhya where Ram Mandir is being built, as 'Ayodhya Buddha Vihar'. The petition came three years after a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had given its verdict in the Ayodhya dispute. The court had, in November 2019 unanimously handed over the disputed site in Ayodhya, where the Babri mosque once stood, for the construction of a Ram temple and directed the Union Government to allot a five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque.

The petitioner in the case, Vineet Maurya, submitted that Buddhist artefacts had been recovered from the site and this had also been recorded by the Allahabad High Court in its 2010 judgment in the Babri Masjid - Ram Mandir dispute. He argued that even though the Allahabad High Court noticed that as per historians, reports of the Archaeological Survey of India and witnesses in the case, there were remains of stupas and pillars resembling Buddhist architecture at the site, no further finding was recorded as to the claim of the Buddhist community.

Hence, he stated that the land should be declared as an archaeological site of national importance under Sections 3 and 4 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act.

CJI DY Chandrachud remarked–

"We have already dealt with this in the Ayodhya judgement...Either we dismiss this or you withdraw."

Accordingly, the petition was withdrawn.

Case Title: VINEET KUMAR MAURYA v. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS | W.P.(C) No. 294/2018

Click Here To Read/Download Order