‘Erection of Babri Masjid was fundamental act of desecration’, says ex-CJI DY Chandrachud

Former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has said that the building of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in the 16th century was “the fundamental act of desecration” at the site where the Ram Temple now stands, Newslaundry reported on Thursday.

Chandrachud was part of a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court that delivered its verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute on November 9, 2019.

The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindu extremists who claimed that an ancient Ram temple stood on the site.

In 2019, the Supreme Court bench directed that the plot be allotted to a trust that would oversee the construction of a Ram Temple, while a separate five-acre plot be allotted in Ayodhya to Muslims for constructing a mosque.

Over four years later, the Ram temple was inaugurated in Ayodhya in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2024. The construction of the temple complex is still underway.

The Supreme Court, in its verdict, had said that although the Archeological Survey of India had found that there existed a structure underneath the Babri Masjid, it did not say whether the structure was demolished to build a mosque. The court had noted that since the ASI report had dated the underlying structure to...

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