The series of history and present of Ayodhya dispute has several stages to be noted. A series of 3 blogs in which we have tried to jot down the basic agendas of the dispute is written in a simple way to reach the people. 

In the first blog, the ancient history of the dispute was discussed thoroughly. 

In this middle part of the series, we’ve tried to cover all the events which occurred during the period, right from the start till today, chronologically. 

1528: Mughal emperor Babur constructed a mosque and named it as Babri Masjid.

December 23, 1949: Lord Ram's idols were planted inside the central dome of the mosque which instigated the court cases from both the parties and hence the land was sealed.

December 17, 1959: The Nirmohi Akhara filed a suit seeking possession of the site and claimed to be the sole custodian of the disputed land.

December 18, 1961: The Sunni Central Board of Waqf filed a suit claiming ownership of the site from their side of the case.

1984: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) launched a campaign for the construction of the Ram temple at the Janmabhoomi land.

February 1, 1986: Faizabad district court ordered the gates of the mosque to be opened and allowed the Hindus to worship inside. Muslims then protested their move and formed a Babri Mosque Action Committee together.

November 9, 1989: VHP laid the foundation of a Ram temple on land next to the Babri Masjid by the followed permission granted from then government of Rajiv Gandhi. 

September 25, 1990: Then BJP President L K Advani launched his Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya for which he was arrested in Bihar’s Samastipur later in November.

December 6, 1992: The disputed Babri Mosque was raised to the ground by the karsevaks.

April 2002: a three-judge Bench of the high court began the hearing to determine the sole ownership of land. The HC ordered the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to excavate the site to determine if the temple was actually built there earlier or not.

2003: ASI found pieces of evidence for the presence of a temple under the mosque. Muslim organizations then disputed the findings.

September 30, 2010: The HC ruled the disputed land and divided it into three parts: one-third to Ram Lalla Virajman, represented by the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, one-third to the Sunni Waqf Board and the remaining to the Nirmohi Akhara.

May 2011: The SC then stayed the orders and put an end to the earlier rules.

March 2017: The SC levied charges against Advani and other leaders stating that it cannot be dropped in the demolition case and that the case may be revived again.

March 21, 2017: The SC said that the matter was sensitive and suggested that it should be settled out in the court.

May 30, 2017: Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar were charged with criminal conspiracy in the demolition case.

Dec 5, 2017: The SC said it will hear the civil appeals filed by various parties challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict on February 8.

September 2018: The SC rejected the plea for a review of the 1994 Farooqui judgment but then clarified that it would have no bearing on pending title suits.

October 2018: The Supreme Court decided that the land dispute case will only be listed before an “appropriate Bench” in January 2019. In what is seen as a setback to the BJP leaders pressing for speedy disposal of the title suit, a Bench consisting of Chief Justice Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph says, “the appropriate Bench will fix the schedule with regard to the hearing of appeals in the case”.

January 4, 2019: The Supreme Court deferred the hearing a bunch of petitions in the Ayodhya title dispute case till January 10. “Further orders will be passed by an appropriate bench on January 10 for fixing the date of hearing the matter,” the Bench said.

January 8, 2019: The Supreme Court set up a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear the land dispute case.

January 10, 2019: A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court heard the Ayodhya land title dispute case, set January 29 as the next date for hearing in the case.

The timeline continues…