AIMPLB Dismisses Out-of-Court Settlement Idea in Babri Masjid - Ram Janmabhoomi Dispute

New Delhi/Hyderabad: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has ruled out any possibility of an out-of-court settlement in the Babri Majid–Ram Janmabhoomi dispute.

Babri Masjid Action Committee Convenor and General Secretary of AIMPLB Zafaryab Jilani told News18 that the out-of-court formula hinted towards their surrender and not a settlement. “They don’t want any settlement, they want us to surrender. Hence, an out-of-court settlement is pointless,” said Jilani.

Indian Muslims’ apex body, AIMPLB, on Friday gave joint approval to Jilani’s stand and dismissed the idea of an out-of-court settlement.

Earlier, Maulana Salman Nadvi, a member of the AIMPLB’s executive committee, meeting Art of Living Founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bengaluru. Nadvi, who was accompanied by other Muslims, met the guru on Thursday to explore a settlement in the dispute.

To this, Jilani said, “The board has no such view. Nadvi's meeting with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is in his individual capacity. None of the working committee members were aware of such a thing. Our position, since the 90s, has been settlement via court and there has been no change in that. We have no removal clause in our board’s constitution, hence we would just ignore Nadvi.”

AIMPLB president Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadvi was presiding over a meeting of the board’s 50-member executive committee in Hyderabad to discuss the agenda for the general body meeting scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

The board had reviewed Nadvi’s statement at its executive committee meeting, held as part of a three-day plenary that started in Hyderabad on Friday evening.

The meeting also discussed key agendas like the Triple Talaq Bill pending in the Rajya Sabha. The board will also deliberate if a clause of prohibited instant talaq should be included in the Muslim marriage contract.

Meanwhile, a CJI Dipak Misra-led bench in the Supreme Court, on Thursday, declared the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi issue as a land dispute, stating that it does not intend to allow any third-party intervention at this stage. The next hearing on the matter was posted for March 14.