Revenue court declares MRV Trust's Dalit land occupancy in Ayodhya illegal

Ayodhya: A 21 bigha (52,000 square metres) of Dalit land in Ayodhya obtained by the Maharishi Ramayan Vidyapeeth Trust (MRVT) through a government order on August 22, 1996, has been declared void by the Assistant Record Officer (ARO) court after being found it was illegal.

By the new order, the land is now being vested to the state government, freeing it from all encumbrances, according to The Indian Express report. Though the court freed the land from the MRVT's occupancy, no action has been recommended against the trust, citing nor forgery in the deal.

Earlier, TIE had brought out a list of local MLAs, close relatives of bureaucrats, and kin of revenue officials, who had bought land in Ayodhya, assuming the potentials of the land in the real estate market after the Supreme Court verdict favouring the temple construction in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

The ART court order came after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered a probe into the land deal following the Indian Express report on the real estate dealings in Ayodhya.

In the flurry of these land deals, one set of transactions had raised questions of propriety and conflict of interest. Some buyers were closely related to a couple of officials involved in probing the seller – Maharishi Ramayan Vidyapeeth Trust – for alleged irregularities in land transfer from Dalit residents, TIE report claimed.