-Dr. Shakti Kumar Pandey
Two Delhi-based sisters have moved the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court claiming ownership of five-acre land allotted to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque in Ayodhya in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case.
The petition before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court was filed in the court”s registry and is likely to come up for hearing on February 8.
Rani Kapoor alias Rani Baluja and Rama Rani Punjabi have said in the writ petition that their father Gyan Chandra Punjabi had come to India during partition in 1947 from Punjab and settled in Faizabad district.
They have claimed that their father was allotted 28-acre land in Dhannipur village by the Nazul Department for five years which he continued to possess beyond that period.
Later, his name was included in the revenue records, the petitioners have said.
However, his name was struck down from the records against which their father filed an appeal before the Additional Commissioner, Ayodhya, which was allowed, they have claimed.
The petitioners further claimed that the consolidation officer again removed their father’s name from the records during consolidation proceedings.
Against the order of the consolidation officer, an appeal was preferred before the Settlement Officer of Consolidation, Sadar, Ayodhya, which is still pending.
The two sisters alleged that without considering the pendency of the said petition, the authorities have allotted five-acre of their land to the Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque.
The petitioners have demanded that the authorities be restrained forthwith from transferring the land to the Sunni Waqf Board till the pendency of dispute before the settlement officer.
It may be mentioned that the state government has allotted this five-acre land to the Sunni Waqf Board in Dhannipur village for construction of mosque in compliance with Supreme Court direction on November 7, 2019 in the Ram Janmabhoomi- Babri mosque title suit.
