New Delhi | The five-judge Supreme Court bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi has announced on Wednesday that they will complete the Ayodhya hearing in a month.
The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title case set October 18 target to complete hearing in the case. “Let us make a joint effort to conclude the same by Oct 18”, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said.
Chief Justice Gogoi had yesterday asked the parties to share a tentative schedule for concluding their arguments.
All petitioners had been asked yesterday to submit a schedule for their arguments. The court, after going through their skeds, held out the hope that the arguments could be completed by October 18.
“If need be, we can extend our sitting by an hour,” Chief Justice Gogoi said, they could take up cases on weekends too.
Mediation panel
The mediation committee, this week, returned to the Supreme Court with a request from 2 of the 16 parties who wanted to continue efforts for a negotiated settlement.
Last month, the court had said mediation by the panel had failed to produce a solution. “Mediation didn’t result in any kind of settlement,” Chief Justice Gogoi had said in a six-minute hearing in which the court ordered daily hearings.
The mediation panel comprising former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifulla, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu had started consultations in March. The court was told that the panel “did its best to arrive at a consensus” in consultation with various petitioners but “some parties” did not agree.
The court said that if the mediation submits a consensus report, then it will be taken up in open court and verified.
CJI Gogoi said they could go ahead but would have to maintain confidentiality.
More than a dozen appeals were filed against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
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