Ayodhya, a city in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh is well known for its political, religious, historical significance and lately, its legal disputes which have taken place in the last few decades. All these disputes in the city of Ayodhya have centered around a plot of land which is regarded as the birth place of Lord Ram among the followers of Hindu religion.

Ironically this is the same plot of land on which the famous Babri Masjid was built. The location of the Babri Masjid made people to think that whether the Hindu Temple previously built was modified into a mosque or was the temple completely demolished.

The first recorded legal history in the Ayodhya dispute was in the year 1858, when an FIR was filed by Mohd. Salim against a group of Nihang Sikhs who had written "Ram" inside the Babri Masjid. Post-Independence, in the year 1949 the idols of Lord Ram were placed under the central dome outside the mosque and this triggered the Ayodhya dispute.

In 1950, Gopal Visharad and Ramchandra Das moved to the Faizabad Court for the permission to worship the idol. Further, Nirmohi Akhara in the year 1959 filed a plea seeking possession of aforesaid disputed land. The Central Sunni Waqf Board, Uttar Pradesh in the year 1961 moved to the court for the possession of the disputed land and the removal of the idol inside the mosque. Later, in the year 1989, another suit was filed by the former Allahabad High Court Judge, Deoki Nandan Agarwal J. before the civil judge in Faizabad for the construction of a new temple. Shia Waqf Board also filed a suit in the same year and became a defendant in the case.

A turning point in the Ayodhya dispute came in the year 1986 after the Faizabad court ordered the opening of the locks of the disputed structure. This was order by the court after an application was filed with the Munsif Magistrate, Faizabad by an advocate named Umesh Chandra Pandey. In 1991, the Bhartiya Janta Party led State acquired premises in dispute to develop it for tourism under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. This acquisition was challenged by the Muslim community through 6 writ petitions. Eventually this acquisition was later quashed by the Hon'ble Allahabad High Court.

On 6th December 1992, the demolition of Babri Masjid took place which was done illegally by a group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organizations. This provoked several months of inter –communal riots, in which the two different communities of Hindus and Muslims attacked one another. The Liberhan Commission was set up to investigate this matter. This commission was headed by retired High Court Judge, M.S. Liberhan.

The Central Government in the year 1993, promulgated an ordinance for the Acquisition of Central Area at Ayodhya. Immediately after this, Mohd. Ismail Farooqi filed a writ petition in the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India challenging the aforesaid ordinance. The five-judge bench held that the acquisition was valid.

The Hon'ble Allahabad High Court admitted the case in March 2002 and the hearing began for the title suit of the Ayodhya dispute. In July 2003, the court ordered excavation at the disputed site. The Archaeological Survey of India excavated and submitted its report. According to the reports submitted by the Archaeological Survey of India, there was a massive structure beneath the disputed structure and there were artifacts related to Hindu Religion.

The three-bench judge of Justice Dharamveer Sharma, Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice SU Khan of the Hon'ble Allahabad High Court gave its judgement in this suit on 30th September 2010. It divided the disputed land into three parts. One part each was given to Ram Lala, Nirmohi Akhada and Sunni Waqf Board respectively. But none of the parties was satisfied with the pronouncement of such a judgement and therefore appealed before the Apex court of the country. On May 9, 2011 a bench comprising of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice RM Lodha, admitting to the batch of appeals, had put a stay on the 2010 judgement of the Hon'ble High Court and instructed the parties to maintain the status quo at the site.

Later, in February 2019, Chief Justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi formed a five-judge bench under him along with Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice S Abdul Nazeer, Justice S A Bobde and Justice D Y Chandrachud. The bench proposed a court-monitored mediation. Former Hon'ble Supreme Court judge, Justice FM Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Senior Advocate Sriram Panchu were in the mediation panel.

The mediation began on March 13, 2019 at Awadh University in Faizabad but did not yield result. After failure of the mediation process, the court decided to start regular hearing from August 6, 2019. The arguments from all the sides were completed on October 16, 2019. On November 9, 2019, the court pronounced the judgement, permitting the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya. The Hon'ble Supreme Court further instructed the Central Government to provide a prominent and suitable five-acre plot to the Muslim community to construct a mosque in Ayodhya, thus ending the century long dispute between both the communities.