The Madhya Pradesh high court's ruling on the Bhojshala dispute in Dhar disposed of not two but three competing religious claims.
Alongside the main contest between Hindu and Muslim petitioners, a separate petition filed by a member of the Jain community argued that the site had always been a Jain temple, and that the idol at the centre of the dispute was not the Hindu goddess Saraswati but the Jain goddess Ambika.
The court awarded the site to the Hindu site as a temple, and also dismissed the Jain petition. In doing that, it made an observation, that Jainism is "in fact, a branch of Hinduism". The court cited two legal provisions to make that point.
Also read | Ayodhya 2.0: Bhojshala a Hindu temple, rules MP HC; cites SC's principles in ruling on Dhar dispute
What the Jain petitioner argued
