The Centre on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking its permission to return the 67 acres acquired in 1993 around the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid site to its original owners.
In its fresh plea, the Centre said it had acquired the land around the 2.77-acre disputed site but the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas - a trust to promote construction of Ram Temple - wanted it to be returned.
The Nyas is the owner of a portion of the 67 acres that has other owners also. Earlier, the apex court had ordered that status quo be maintained with regard to the acquired land.
Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla Virajman.
The Supreme Court had on Sunday cancelled a hearing scheduled for Tuesday in the title dispute case because Justice S.A. Bobde, one of the five judges of the Constitution bench, was unavailable.
The VHP has welcomed the Centre's writ petition, calling it a step was in the right direction. 'This land belongs to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas and is not under any litigation. This is a step in the right direction and we welcome it,' VHP's international working president Alok Kumar said.
