SC to hold day-to-day hearing in Ayodhya case from Aug 6

Wednesday 07th August 2019 07:29 EDT
 
 

The Supreme Court has decided to commence day-to-day hearing from August 6 on the 2.77-acre Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid disputed land in Ayodhya after the high-level mediation panel expressed its inability to resolve the contentious issue. Speculations are that an order in the vexed case may come about before CJI Ranjan Gogoi’s term ends in November.

A swift 10-minute proceeding held on July 2 saw a five-judge bench of CJI Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazir deciding the issue. Immediately after the bench assembled, CJI Gogoi dictated the order and said the mediation panel headed by former SC judge FMI Kalifulla had reported that attempts for a negotiated settlement had failed. “Therefore, we have decided to commence hearing on pending appeals from August 6 on a day-to-day basis till arguments get completed,” the bench said.

The appeals of Nirmohi Akhara and deity Ram Lalla would be heard first, said the bend. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, for the Muslim parties, objected raising technical issues relating to some of the 18 pending petitions. He asked why the Bench chose to hear these two parties first. He said some of the Muslim parties had filed the first case. But the court did not relent. Dhavan then submitted that he would need 20 full days to argue his case and his submissions should not be curtailed. “We will see about it... Let us start hearing the appeals,” Chief Justice Gogoi replied making it plain that the court would brook no further delay in the adjudication of the appeals pending for nearly a decade in the court.

Questions about the efficacy of the mediation process came under the spotlight after an application was filed by Gopal Singh Visharad, an original claimant to the disputed land who filed a title suit way back in 1950, through his survivor Rajendra Singh, on July 9, claiming that the Justice Kalifulla committee was making no progress. The application urged the court to stop mediation and start adjudication on the pending Ayodhya appeals. On July 18, the Bench asked the mediation committee to submit a report on the outcome of mediation proceedings held between July 31 and August 1 with Hindu and Muslim parties to amicably resolve the over 70-year-old Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title spat. The mediation panel conveyed that they had failed to strike a consensus among rival parties and it was time to wind up the mediation process.

Hindu and Muslim parties have challenged the Allahabad HC’s 2010 verdict dividing the 2.77-acre disputed land into three equal parts with one each to Ram Lalla (the idol), Nirmohi Akhara and Sunni waqf board. The SC’s first order on the Ayodhya appeals, against the HC’s judgment, was passed in May 2011 by a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha, which stayed the HC verdict. Completion of pleadings in the Ayodhya case, an exercise which required dealing with the HC judgment and accompanying documents running into thousands of pages, took years and finally a three-judge bench led by then CJI Dipak Misra decided to commence hearing in December 2017.


comments powered by Disqus



to the free, weekly Asian Voice email newsletter