In the backdrop of the announcement of a RSS ideologue and BJP Rajya Sabha member to bring a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament for early construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Muslim side claimed that such a move would have no impact on the ongoing court proceedings.
Senior lawyer in Ayodhya case and member of All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Zafaryab Jilani said that anyone could comment on the Private Member’s Bill only after it was adopted and passed by Parliament and a law was made.
“It is not the government that decides when a Private Member’s Bill is listed for being brought up in the House. It is decided by the Business Advisory Committee of the House and the committee comprises members from different parties,” he said.
Jilani said that the Centre as well as the BJP were afraid of contempt of court in the Ayodhya matter and hence they were not directly bringing the bill but doing so through a safe route of a Private Member’s Bill.
When asked that if they would challenge the bill, Jilani said: “Let the bill come and be taken up by the House, then only we will decide whether it is challengeable in court or not.”
He, however, made it clear that no bill could be challenged until it became a law and an Act.
To a poser about the fate of Ayodhya case and when the verdict was expected if day-to-day hearing started in January, 2019, Jilani said, “Cannot say at this stage what the court will do. Do not know if the Supreme Court can deliver judgement before polls. All will depend upon Supreme Court bench and how it plans to hear the case.”
Jilani also made it clear that after arguments were over, the court needed at least one to two months for writing the order.
A new twist was given to the Ayodhya issue, when BJP MP Rakesh Sinha said on Wednesday that he may move a Private Member’s Bill in Rajya Sabha for construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Sinha, in a tweet, asked whether the people who taunted BJP and RSS over the issue of Ram temple would support his bill.
On Monday, the Supreme Court posted Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for the first week of January before an ‘appropriate bench’.