A petition seeking review of the Supreme Court's November 9 judgment on Ayodhya land dispute was filed in the apex court on Monday.

Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi, legal heir of original litigant M. Siddiq, has filed the review plea saying that the judgment suffers from 'errors apparent on record and warrants a review under Article 137 of the Constitution of India'.

According to the verdict, the Supreme Court had said the entire 2.77-acres of disputed land should be handed over to the deity Ram Lalla, who was one of the three litigants. The five-judge Constitution bench also directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board in Ayodhya to build a mosque.

The review petition said the apex court in an attempt to balance the reliefs between the parties, condoned illegalities of the Hindu parties and allotted alternate land admeasuring 5 acres to the Muslim parties, which was neither pleaded nor prayed for by the Muslim parties.

Rashidi is president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind.

In the petition, he said it must be noted that the review petitioner is not challenging the entire judgment.

Before filing the review, Rashidi claimed that a majority of Muslims want the review petition to be filed and the number of those in the community against it are very few.

'The court has given us this right and the review must be filed,' Madani told PTI.

'The main contention in the case was that the mosque was built by destructing a temple. The court said that there was no evidence that the mosque was built after destructing a temple, the title of Muslims therefore was proven, but the final verdict was the opposite. So we are filing a review as the verdict is beyond understanding,' he said.

On November 14, the working committee of the Jamiat had formed a five-member panel comprising legal experts and religious scholars to look into every aspect of the Supreme Court's November 9 verdict.

The panel, under the chairmanship Madani, had looked into the prospects of the review petition against the apex court verdict and recommended that the plea should be filed in the case.

Apart from the Jamiat, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has also said a review petition will be filed before December 9.

The Sunni Central Waqf Board has, however, decided against filing a review plea. The Waqf board also said that it was yet to take a call on whether to accept the five-acre plot for a mosque.

Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had on Sunday hit out at the AIMPLB and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind for their decision to seek a review of the Ayodhya verdict, saying they are trying to create an 'atmosphere of division and confrontation' after the matter was laid to rest by the apex court.

He also said that for the Muslims, the important issue is not just 'Babri (mosque) but barabri (equality)' in areas of education, economic and social upliftment.

The AIMPLB on Sunday asserted that 99 per cent of Muslims in the country want a review of the unanimous Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute.