SC reiterates intent to end hearings on Oct 17

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court reiterated on Friday its intention to conclude hearing on appeals against the Allahabad high court verdict in the Ayodhya case will conclude on October 17.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asked the parties to finish their arguments by October 16 so that it can hear them on moulding the relief the next day. CJI Gogoi retires in November 17 and the bench will have exactly four weeks to author the verdict in the decades-old civil suit. The bench also comprises Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.

Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan appearing for the Sunni Central Wakf Board Friday countered the Hindu side’s rejoinder, terming their arguments as mischievous, unfortunate and intended to promote communally divisive feelings, Dhavan said the “illegalities are central to the determination” of the case and added that if anything was communaly divisive, it was the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. He argued that if belief, spirituality and sacrality are the tests, they would apply to Islam as well.

To a court’s query on whether living beings or objects were revered in Islam, Dhavan replied that while for Hindus, it is manifested through multiple forms, for the Muslims it is manifested through multiple prayers.

Nobody questioned Ram’s birth in Ayodhya, he told the bench. “The dispute would not have been there but for the claim that he was born under the central dome of the Babri Masjid”, he said adding this was at the core of the issue.