Supreme Court bench to fix Ayodhya hearing date on Jan 10

New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on Friday that an “appropriate bench” will on January 10 fix the date of hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case. “Further orders in the matter will be passed on January 10 by the appropriate bench as may be constituted,” said a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S.K. Kaul. A three-member bench is to be set up for hearing the matter on a batch of petitions.

The CJI went ahead with passing the order as soon as the matter came up for hearing. Senior advocates Harish Salve and Rajeev Dhavan, who appeared for different parties, did not even get the opportunity to make any submission.     The hearing did not even last 30 seconds.

After it passed the order, the bench came across a fresh plea which demanded that the court hear the Ayodhya land dispute matter on an urgent and day-to-day basis. The bench, however, dismissed the PIL filed by advocate Harinath Ram, who submitted that in view of the inordinate delay in the adjudication of the matter and the prevailing sentiments surrounding the Ayodhya dispute, the matter should be given a hearing on priority.

The bench in its order said: “Having heard the petitioner, who is appearing in person, and upon perusing the relevant material, we are not inclined to entertain the writ petition. The same is, accordingly, dismissed.”

Now, a three-member bench will be set up for taking forward the Ayodhya land dispute case in which as many as 14 appeals were filed against the 2010 Allahabad high court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land be partitioned equally among three parties — Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

The Supreme Court had on October 29 fixed the matter for the first week of January before the “appropriate bench”. Later, an application was moved for according an urgent hearing by advancing the date, but the court had refused the plea, saying it had already passed an order on October 29 on the hearing.

Friday’s hearing had assumed importance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday suggested that any decision on an ordinance on the Ram temple in Ayodhya could happen only after the completion of the judicial process. Mr Modi’s remark had come amid heightened demands by Hindutva organisations, including the RSS, for an ordinance for early construction of the temple.