Two Delhi-based sisters moved the Allahabad High Court claiming the ownership of the 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 sisters, Rani Baluja and Rama Rani Punjabi have demanded the authorities be restrained from transferring the land to the Sunni Waqf Board till the pendency of dispute before the settlement officer.
In the writ petition before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC, the sisters claimed that their father Gyan Chandra Punjabi had come to India during partition in 1947 from Punjab and settled in Faizabad (now Ayodhya) district.
They stated 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, claimed the sisters.
“The consolidation officer again removed their father’s name from the records during consolidation proceedings,” the petition added. Against the order of the consolidation officer, an appeal was preferred before the Settlement Officer of Consolidation, Sadar, Ayodhya, but without considering the said petition, the authorities have allotted five-acre of their 28-acre land to the Waqf Board for the construction of the mosque, they said.
Therefore, the petitioners have demanded the authorities be restrained from transferring the land to the Sunni Waqf Board till the pendency of dispute before the settlement officer.
