This chapter analyses the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi controversy by focusing on the legal and administrative literature through which the Ayodhya dispute acquires a life in law. The law in relation to the dispute is concerned more with the restoration of the status quo, and less with issues related to justice, restitution and rehabilitation. The status quo becomes a title of legitimation open to occupation from all sides so much so that specific legal and administrative strategies are no longer be possible without it. © 2015 Fordham University Press. All rights reserved.