New Delhi: A row has erupted amongst the Muslim litigants who were parties to title suit after Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind “sacked” senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan as its lead lawyer while filing its plea on December 2 seeking the reconsideration of November 9 judgment by which Supreme Court gave the disputed site to idol of Ram Lalla for the construction of Lord Ram’s temple at Ayodhya.
Mr Dhavan has used the word “sacking” for his removal by the Jamiat.
The day started with Rajeev Dhavan describing as “malicious and untrue” a statement attributed to Arshad Madani — heading one of the two factions of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind — saying that they wanted to file the review petition on December 2 itself but Mr Dhavan was unwell and not available to settle the petition.
Mr Madani sought to justify the dropping of Mr Dhavan as the lead lawyer, saying that they wanted to file the plea for the reconsideration of November 9 verdict on December 2 and Mr Dhavan was not available to settle the petition.
However, sources within the Muslim litigants said that it was decided that all the petitions seeking the reconsideration of November 9 verdict that were being drafted under the supervision of Rajeev Dhavan would be filed simultaneously on the same day.
A source, who is watching the developments from close quarters, said that Jamiat’s action amounted to sealing a march over other, who too were ready with their petitions seeking the review of Ayodhya judgment.
Mr Dhawan in a social media post said, “I have been informed that Mr Madani has indicated that I was removed from the case because I was unwell. This is total nonsense. He has a right to instruct his lawyer AOR Ejaz Maqbool to sack me, which he did on instructions. But, the reasons being floated are malicious and untrue.”
In a letter to Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind lawyer Ejaz Maqbool, a copy of which was sent to Mr Madni, Mr Dhavan has recounted all that transpired betw-een the lawyers of different litigants, including senior lawyer Zafaryab Jilani for ironing out the differences on certain points.
