The Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected a petition seeking permission to offer namaz at the disputed site in Ayodhya and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the petitioner saying the plea was filed for “cheap publicity”, PTI reported.
Justices DK Arora and Alok Mathur of the Lucknow bench of the High Court passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Al-Rahman Trust, which had requested the court to give permission to offer namaz at the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site.
The court directed the district magistrate of Faizabad to collect the fine if it is not deposited by the trust.
The Supreme Court had on October 29 adjourned the Ram temple-Babri Masjid land dispute case to January. The court is hearing a batch of petitions challenging a 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict that ordered a three-way division of the land in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, on which the Babri Masjid stood before Hindutva activists demolished it on December 6, 1992.
The High Court divided the land – on which Hindutva leaders want to build a Ram temple – equally between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Sunni Wakf Board and the representative for the deity, Ram Lalla, or the infant Ram.
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