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Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 4
The Supreme Court is finally going to hear the politically sensitive Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute which has been hanging fire for months despite completion of procedural formalities, including translation of documents and filing of affidavits, counter-affidavits and rejoinders.
During a brief hearing lasting barely 30 seconds, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Friday said further order on hearing cross-appeals against the September 30, 2010, verdict of the Allahabad High Court will be passed by an “appropriate Bench” on January 10.
It means the CJI will constitute before January 10 a new Bench which will decide 14 cross-appeals against the Allahabad High Court’s order dividing the disputed land equally between Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhada and Sunni Wakf Board.
Earlier, a Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra (since retired), Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer was hearing the matter but after Justice Misra’s retirement on October 2, the Bench had not been reconstituted.
The Bench also dismissed a petition filed by advocate Harinath Ram seeking time-bound hearing of the matter on a day-to-day basis.
Ram contended that the delay had sent a huge consternation to the general public at large about the effectiveness of the justice delivery system by the apex court of our country and there was imminent danger of public outburst which can engulf our country in flames of violence.
Amid demands by Hindu organisations for an ordinance to pave the way for construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday suggested any such decision could happen only after the completion of the judicial process.
“Let the judicial process take its own course. Don’t weigh it in political terms. Let the judicial process be over. After the judicial process is over, whatever be our responsibility as government, we are ready to make all efforts,” Modi had had said in an interview to ANI.
The top court had on September 27 by a 2:1 verdict refused to refer to a larger Bench its 1994 verdict which ruled a “mosque is not an essential part of the practice of Islam”. It had directed the cross appeals in the Ayodhya title suit to be listed before a three-judge Bench on October 29.
On October 29, CJI Gogoi had said the cross-appeals against the September 30, 2010, Allahabad High Court’s order will be listed before an appropriate Bench in the first week of January for fixing the date of hearing.
If the “appropriate Bench” set up by the CJI decides to take up the Ayodhya cross-appeals in the next one or two weeks, the hearing would most probably coincide with the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. But it remains unclear if the Ayodhya land dispute verdict will be delivered before the Lok Sabha polls.
Hindus believe that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya thousands of years ago. During Mughal Emperor Babar’s rule, a mosque was constructed at the place in 1528 after destroying the temples existing there.
More than 70 years after the Faizabad Civil Court rejected its claim over Babri Masjid as a Shia Wakf, the Shia Central Waqf Board of UP had last year moved the Supreme Court to assert its claim over the disputed site. Interestingly, the Special Leave Petition – which challenged a 1946 decision of the Faizabad Civil Court – said the Babri Masjid was built by demolishing a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
The RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and BJP have been running a campaign for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. On December 6, 1992, kar sevaks of right-wing Hindu organisations demolished the disputed structure. Many BJP leaders, including LK Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi, are facing a criminal case in connection with the demolition.
But the civil dispute over 2.7 acres is a separate one that has been on since 1961 when the Sunni Wakf Board took the matter to court.
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