AMN
The Supreme Court today refused to accord an early hearing on a batch of civil appeals pertaining to the Ayodhya Ram Temple-Babri Masjid case. During the hearing, a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar told BJP leader Subramanian Swamy that the court was made to believe that he was a party to the ongoing litigation.
The court said, this had led to the Chief Justice of India offering to mediate between the parties to the litigation. Mr Swamy, however, said that he had made it clear that he was on the issue of his Fundamental Right to worship. He said My Right to Pray is affected by the pending case and he had filed an intervening application.
The bench then said that it was not going to fast track the matter. Earlier on March 21 the apex court had suggested an out-of-court settlement to the lingering Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute at Ayodhya, observing that issues of religion and sentiments” can be best resolved through talks.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had in 2010 ruled for a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres area at the site in Uttar Pradesh.The three-judge bench, by a majority of 2:1, had said the land be partitioned equally among three parties, Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla.
On February 26 last year, the apex court had allowed Swamy to intervene in the pending matters relating to the Ayodhya title dispute with his plea seeking construction of Ram temple at the site of the demolished disputed structure.