The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking directions for nominating Central and state government representatives to the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) trust for building a mosque in Ayodhya.
Citing the Shri Ram Mandir Teerth Ksehtra Trust – formed by the central government in accordance with the SC judgment of November 2019 in the Ayodhya dispute to oversee construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya — the petitioners said it was only fair that the government monitors the Muslim trust as well.
The writ, filed by Shishir Chaturvedi of Lucknow and Karunesh Kumar Shukla of Basti in August 2020, was dismissed by the bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice KM Joseph.
The petitioners had contented that the central government’s involvement was necessary to maintain peace in Ayodhya and to “ensure no malpractices take place and funds are not misused or misappropriated” by the trust.
Spokesperson of the trust Athar Husain said, “The petition does not hold any water. The trust formed by UP Sunni Central Waqf Board for management of 5-acre plot already has CEO of the Board, who is a government officer, as founder trustee.”
In November 2019, Supreme Court had ordered the disputed land in Ayodhya be set aside for construction of Ram Mandir and UP Sunni Central Waqf Board be allotted 5 acres by the government for construction of a mosque. Aftert the state government allotted land at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya , UP Sunni Central Waqf Board formed a trust, Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation in August this year with nine members.
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