A dispute over one plot of land in Ayodhya ran for over a century. In January 2024, a temple stood where a mosque once stood, following a Supreme Court verdict five years earlier.
Must Know
The Babri Masjid Demolition, 1992
- Dispute SiteThe dispute centred on a site in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid stood, demolished on 6 December 1992.
- TakeawayThe demolition is the single event most people associate with the decades-long dispute over this site.
Two Competing Claims to the Same Site
- Rival ClaimsHindu petitioners held the site as Lord Ram’s birthplace. Muslim petitioners held it as a centuries-old mosque site.
- TakeawayThe legal dispute was fundamentally about title to one specific plot of land, not a purely religious question.
The Supreme Court Decides, 9 November 2019, and 2.77 Acres to a Temple Trust, and A Separate Plot for a Mosque
- VerdictThe Supreme Court decided the title case, M Siddiq v. Mahant Suresh Das, on 9 November 2019.
- TakeawayThe case name itself is a useful, precise way to identify this specific verdict in exam contexts.
- Land AwardThe Court awarded the 2.77-acre disputed site to a trust, for building the Ram temple.
- TakeawayThe land went to a newly created trust, not directly to any existing religious organisation.
- Alternate PlotThe Court separately ordered a 5-acre alternate plot for the Sunni Central Waqf Board, to build a mosque.
- TakeawayThe verdict addressed both parties’ claims with two separate, specific land allocations, not a single all-or-nothing ruling.
Good to Know
What Archaeology Contributed to the Verdict
- ASI FindingsThe verdict cited Archaeological Survey of India findings of an earlier, non-Islamic structure beneath the demolished mosque.
- TakeawayThe Court’s reasoning drew on physical, excavated evidence, not testimony or belief alone.
The Trust Set Up to Build the Temple
- Trust FormationThe Union Government formed the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in February 2020 to manage the temple.
- Trust CompositionThe Trust has 15 trustees: 12 nominated by the central government, and 3 co-opted at its first meeting.
- Trust LeadershipMahant Nritya Gopal Das was elected the Trust’s President; Champat Rai became its first General Secretary.
The 2020 Foundation Stone Ceremony, and A Law That Explicitly Excluded This One Case, and A Unanimous Verdict That Still Found Both Sides at Fault
- Foundation StonePM Narendra Modi laid the temple’s foundation stone (Bhoomi Pujan) on 5 August 2020.
- TakeawayRoughly nine months separated the Supreme Court’s verdict and the formal start of construction.
- Legal ExclusionThe Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, explicitly excluded the Ayodhya dispute, since it was already in court.
- TakeawayThis is why the general 1991 law, freezing the religious character of all other disputed sites, did not resolve or block Ayodhya’s own separate litigation. See Polity0104 — Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 for that law’s own rules.
- Unanimous VerdictAll five judges on the bench agreed on the outcome, a genuinely unanimous decision rather than a majority ruling with dissent.
- Illegal Acts FindingThe same judgment also explicitly held that both the 1992 demolition of the mosque and the 1949 placement of idols inside it were illegal acts.
- TakeawayAwarding the land to one side did not mean the Court endorsed every action taken to advance that side’s claim over the decades.
Exam Point of View
A Real PYQ on the Temple’s Architect
- PYQUPSC CDS (II) 2020, General Knowledge, asked who is the architect of the Ram Temple being constructed at Ayodhya. The answer is Chandrakant Sompura.
- WhyThis is a specific, factual, apolitical detail: a named individual credited with the temple’s design, tested the same way any other monument’s architect might be.
- LinkRead the full paper here: UPSC CDS (II) 2020 — General Knowledge.
✅ Test Yourself
Question 1 of 1
Great to Know
The 2024 Consecration Ceremony
- ConsecrationThe Pran Pratishtha (consecration) ceremony was held on 22 January 2024, presided over by PM Modi.
- TakeawayThis ceremony marked the temple’s formal religious inauguration, distinct from the 2020 foundation stone ceremony that began construction.
The Building’s Own Dimensions
- Temple DimensionsThe temple stands 161 feet tall, across three storeys, with 392 pillars and 44 doors.
- Site AreaIt sits on 2.77 acres within a wider 70-acre Ayodhya complex.
- TakeawayThe disputed title site and the full complex the temple now sits within are two different, specific figures.
The Same Architect’s Family Built Somnath, Too, and Engineered to Outlast Any Single Material
- ArchitectChief architect Chandrakant Sompura’s family also designed the Somnath Temple in Gujarat.
- TakeawayOne family’s temple-design lineage connects two of India’s most prominent modern Hindu temple reconstructions.
- Construction TechniqueThe temple was built using over 26,500 individual interlocking stone blocks, joined with grooves and copper pins rather than cement, and deliberately avoids steel or iron reinforcement, since iron typically lasts only 80 to 90 years before rusting.
- Foundation EngineeringIts foundation uses 47 layers of engineered, compacted soil to a depth of 12 to 14 metres, topped with a thick granite plinth, designed for earthquake resistance well beyond ordinary building standards.
- TakeawayThe construction choices reflect a specific, stated goal: a structure intended to last many centuries, not just decades.
- LinkVerified against Swarajya, How Ram Mandir Is An Architectural Marvel.
📰 Current Affairs
- In mid-2026, a donation-embezzlement probe forced a leadership change at the Trust. On 14 June 2026, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed after former SP MLA Pawan Pandey alleged ₹7-7.5 crore in donations were misappropriated. Full coverage: CA0006 — Ram Mandir Trust: Resignations and Interim General Secretary Appointment.
- General Secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra both resigned on 27 June 2026, citing moral responsibility. On 6 July 2026, Krishna Mohan was appointed interim General Secretary, an appointment announced by Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, successor to Trust President Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.
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