By Matters India Reporter
Kanpur, March 9, 2019: The Indian Catholic Forum has urged the mediators appointed by the Supreme Court to resolve the Ayodhya imbroglio to take a cue from the Jerusalem Status Quo.
Welcoming the apex court’s decision to refer the Ayodhya dispute to a panel of three mediators, the forum said they could draw inspiration from the international precedent of Jerusalem that is sacred to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on March 8 referred the decades-old Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute to the mediation panel.
Former Supreme Court judge FMI Kalifulla will lead the panel, which will have as its members Hindu guru Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, an expert in mediation and dispute resolution.
The bench said the panel would submit its first progress report on the mediation effort within four weeks.
The Catholic forum says the court has rightly observed that the matter before it is a title suit, regarding the ownership of the land in question.
“But that is only a part of the problem. This is because minds and hearts have been affected, and there is need for a healing process. These observations are pregnant with meaning, and should not be lost on the parties to the dispute, as also the public at large.’
It is indeed true that settling a land ownership dispute, based on the evidence on record, would be relatively easy. But this would surely not be acceptable to the aggrieved party. In the recent past we have seen how SC judgments in the Sabarimala, Cauvery waters and Jalikattu cases have been rejected by the affected parties. Hence mediation and conciliation is the only solution, the forum says.
It suggests the mediators draw inspiration from the international precedent of Jerusalem that is sacred to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
“For centuries the adherents of the three religions fought and killed each other to gain supremacy. However, sometime in the last century an accord, also referred to as the Status Quo, was formulated and made binding on all the parties, thereby ushering in peace,” said a press statement issued byforum convener chhotebhai.
For example Calvary, the place of the Crucifixion and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ, is owned by a Muslim family, on the basis of a thirteenth century edict. Known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the massive wooden doors are opened by the “owners” in the morning, and closed at night.
The forum also suggests the mediators make a visit to Jerusalem at government expense. “They could take along with them some legal experts and religious leaders, to study how the accord was arrived at, and use that international precedent for solving the Ayodhya imbroglio,” it adds.