SC nod to Nirvani Akhara to file note on worship rights

NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court Tuesday allowed ‘Nirvani Akahara’, one of the Hindu parties in the decades-old case of Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya, to file a written note seeking the “right to manage worship of the deity” as ‘shebait’ (devotee) at the site.

A counsel for ‘Nirvani Akahara’ mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and said his client “miscalculated” the threeday time granted by the court for filing the written note on moulding of relief -- narrowing down the issues raised during the hearing -- and was now seeking the nod for filing it with the apex court’s registry.

“You file it now,” the bench, which also comprised Justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer, told senior advocate Jaideep Gupta who was representing ‘Nirvani Akhara’. Both ‘Nirmohi Akahara’ and its rival ‘Nirvani Akahara’ are seeking right to manage and offer ‘puja’ at the birthplace of deity ‘Ram Lalla Virajman’ at the site.

While ‘Nirmohi Akahara’ had filed a lawsuit in 1959 seeking the right as ‘shebait’, ‘Nirvani Akahara’ has been made a party (defendant) in two separate lawsuits filed by Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Wakf Board and deity ‘Ram Lalla’, through next friend Deoki Nandan Agrwal, in 1961 and 1989 respectively.

The akhara has sought a direction that it be handed over the “right to manage the worship of the deity...as the ‘pujari’ and/or ‘shebait’ of the deity”.

A COUNSEL FOR ‘NIRVANI AKAHARA’ MENTIONED THE MATTER BEFORE A BENCH HEADED BY CHIEF JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI