DATE= 03/13/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= INDIA COURT / S

NUMBER=2-287488

BYLINE= JIM TEEPLE

DATELINE= NEW DELHI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: India's Supreme Court has prohibited Hindu fundamentalists from

holding a prayer ceremony near the site of a destroyed mosque, in northern India. As V-O-A's Jim Teeple reports from our New Delhi bureau, the ruling puts India's government on a confrontation course with Hindu fundamentalists, who say they will go ahead with the ceremony, Friday.

TEXT: A three-judge panel of India's supreme court ruled against a

government petition which said a Hindu prayer ceremony should be

allowed to go ahead on land in the northern town, Ayodhya -- near a 16th

century mosque destroyed by a Hindu mob in 1992.

Muslim groups and opposition politicians praised the court decision,

saying it upholds India's secular constitution.

Leaders of some hard-line Hindu groups say they will go ahead with

plans to hold a prayer service at the site -- putting them on a collision course with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Thousands of paramilitary troops have been sent to Ayohdya, to maintain

order. Tensions are high. More than 700 people -- mostly Muslims --

have died over the past several weeks in Hindu-Muslim riots in India's

western state, Gujarat. (Signed)

neb/jlt/wd