Ayodhya Verdict on Babri Masjid postponed by Supreme Court till Sep 28

Supreme Court ended the suspense and deferred the Allahabad High Court verdict on Ayodhya till September 28 which was earlier schedueled on September 24. The apex court had yesterday declined to hear the plea to postpone the Ayodhya title suit verdict by the Allahabad High Court tomorrow.

An SC bench presided over by justice Altamas Kabir refused to hear a petition seeking to defer the verdict. Justice Kabir, before whom the matter was mentioned for urgent hearing, said he did not have the “ determination” to hear cases pertaining to title suits. The matter would be listed before an appropriate bench in the routine course, he said.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi asked the bench to direct listing of the matter on Thursday before a bench competent to hear such cases. Justice Kabir, however, said he would not pass any order as his bench was not earmarked for hearing cases pertaining to title suits.

Efforts to seek an urgent hearing started soon after Ramesh Chandra Tripathi filed his petition on Wednesday morning. The petition challenged the high court order dismissing his plea to defer the verdict to enable the parties to settle the dispute through negotiations.

Advocate Sunil K. Jain, who had drafted the petition, mentioned the matter before the bench presided over by justice Kabir for urgent hearing at 10.30 am, but he was asked to come at 2 pm. In the post-lunch session, justice Kabir said the matter would be listed in the regular course before an appropriate bench.

Rohatgi then pointed to the urgency and sought listing of the matter on Thursday. But the confusion remained with neither an emphatic no nor an emphatic yes from the bench.

The fact that justice Kabir - the second in the list of seniority - was non-committal on the date of hearing gave an impression that the SC was not inclined to intervene in the matter at this stage.

The petitioner, however, is likely to mention the matter before another bench on Thursday. Tripathi is the 17th defendant in one of the six petitions filed by Hindus and Muslims claiming title over the disputed site at Ayodhya.

The Hindus claim the Babri Masjid was built in 1528 after demolishing a temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram, a claim that the minority community contests.

Though there is evidence of a dispute over the site since the 19th century, the present litigation started in January 1950 after the Hindus placed idols of Lord Ram in the disputed structure on the intervening night of December 22- 23, 1949.

The first two title suits were filed by Gopal Singh Visharad and Mahant Paramhans Ramchandra Das, who sought to restrain the authorities from removing the idols. The Muslims formally claimed the site with the Sunni Central Board of Waqf filing a title suit in 1961.

In 1989, all suits pending before the district court were transferred to the Allahabad High Court for a consolidated hearing. The interim orders protected the right of Hindus to worship at the site ( till the mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992). A three- judge HC bench, which heard the matter, reserved its judgment after conclusion of the arguments on July 26 this year.

On September 8, the bench fixed September 24 as the date for pronouncement of the verdict which is now moved to September 28. Tripathi earlier moved an application to defer the verdict.