A century after the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, a masjid was built in Ayodhya during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Babur. Last Saturday, the Supreme Court ruled that the disputed 2.77 acre property will effectively be handed over to the Hindus. In what can be seen as reparation, the court also directed 5 acres of land at an alternative site in Ayodhya to be handed over to the Muslims. But it this was by no run-of-the-mill property dispute, and a number of contradictions emerge. To ascertain this enforceability in the present dispute, four distinct legal regimes are identified — pre-Mughal, Mughal, colonial and post-independence constitutional.

Source: Economic Times November 17, 2019 17:15 UTC