The Constitution Day was marked on 26 November celebrating 70 years of the adoption of the Indian Constitution. Putting an end to a dispute which is just as old, the Supreme Court pronounced its judgment in the Ayodhya case on 9 November. Back in 2010, while delivering his judgement, Justice S U Khan of the Allahabad High Court had observed that the entire country was waiting with “bated breath” for the verdict, and the mood was no different 9 years later.
Setting aside the High Court’s ‘trifurcation’ of the disputed property, the Supreme Court’s 1045-page judgment has prompted a few questions on why the Court held what it held. This piece is an attempt to answer those questions, purely from a legal point of view.
Why did the Supreme Court have to decide this dispute and why couldn’t the Government acquire the disputed property?