SC to hear pleas for review of Ayodhya verdict today
IN-CHAMBER TRIAL Proceeding will be taken up by a bench headed by Chief Justice Bobde
NEW DELHI: A batch of petitions seeking review of the November 9 Ayodhya land dispute verdict, which cleared the way for construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site, will be considered in-chamber by the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The in-chamber proceeding will be taken up by a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S A Nazeer and Sanjeev Khanna.
Justice Khanna is the only judge who was not a part of the five-judge Constitution bench that had delivered the historic verdict. He replaces the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who has retired.
On November 9, a five-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, his successor SA Bobde and justices DY Chandrachud, Ashok
Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, Supreme Court had on November 9 awarded title of the 2.77-acre disputed land to Ram Lalla Virajman, the child deity while granting 5 acres of land to Muslims at an alternative site for construction of a new mosque.
The court also asked the government to set up a trust to oversee construction of the temple and manage the disputed site.
As per the list of business uploaded on the apex court’s website, the bench would consider 18 review petitions in-chamber, out of which nine have been filed by
THE BENCH WOULD CONSIDER 18 REVIEW PETITIONS, OF WHICH NINE HAVE BEEN FILED BY PARTIES WHO WERE PART OF THE EARLIER LITIGATION AND OTHER NINE BY ‘THIRD PARTIES’
parties who were part of the earlier litigation and the other nine have been filed by “third parties”.
On December 2, the first plea seeking review of Ayodhya verdict was filed in the apex court by Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi, legal heir of original litigant M Siddiq and also the Uttar Pradesh president of the Jamiat Ulama-eHind. On December 6, six petitions were filed in the apex court seeking review of its November 9 judgement.
On December 9, two more review petitions were filed, one by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and the other by 40 persons, including rights activists who have jointly moved the court seeking review of its verdict. Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi has sought review of the verdict on 14 counts and said that “complete justice” could only be done by directing reconstruction of Babri Masjid.
He has also sought an interim stay on operation of the verdict in which it had directed the Centre that a trust be formed within three months for construction of the temple at the site.
Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, which has sought a limited review of the November 9 verdict, has moved the court against the direction to allot a five-acre plot to Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque in Ayodhya.
It has also sought deletion of findings declaring the disputed structure as a Mosque.
The review plea filed by 40 persons, including historian Irfan Habib, economist and political commentator Prabhat Patnaik, activists Harsh Mander, Nandini Sundar and John Dayal, have said they are “deeply aggrieved” by the verdict as it “errs in both fact and law”.
It has sought a full bench for hearing the review plea saying it is not merely a title dispute but a “contestation about the core of India’s constitutional morality, and the principles of equal citizenship, secularism, justice, rule of law and fraternity”.