‘Nyas trust deed sans legal basis’

At the IIC seminar where the AIMPLB and VHP leaders had a face-off today, former income tax commissioner Vishwa Bandhu Gupta flashed the Ram...

At the IIC seminar where the AIMPLB and VHP leaders had a face-off today, former income tax commissioner Vishwa Bandhu Gupta flashed the Ram Janambhoomi Nyas’ trust deed, claiming it has ‘‘no legal basis’’.

Gupta, who was the investigating officer of the Ayodhya case in the ’90s, claimed the court case is stuck because the document is legally untenable ‘‘as it is a public gathering which is the donor of the temple land.’’

The trust deed, which has the address of the VHP’s Sankat Mochan Mandir, RK Puram Sector VI, was executed in 1985 by Swami Ramanandacharya and Swami Shiv Ramacharya Maharaj of Kashi. The deed, Gupta read out, states: ‘‘In a large public gathering organised by Dharamsabha Mukti Yajna Committee in Lucknow on the third day (Sunday) of Sukla Paksh of Margshish of the year 2041 Vikram Sanvad (1985), the public has decided to hand over Shri Ram Janambhoomi at Ayodhya to Swami Shiv Ramacharya.’’

Gupta said: ‘‘In any trust, the donor has to be a legal entity. A public gathering cannot be a donor. A donor has to gift something over which he/she has a legal title. Here neither the donor is legal nor the gift.’’