SC to hear Ayodhya dispute on Feb. 26

New Delhi, Feb. 20: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to hear on February 26 the politically sensitive Ayodhya’s RamJanmabhoomi Babri Masjid land dispute matter.

It will be heard by a five- judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S. A. Bobde, D. Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. A. Nazeer.

The apex court on January 27 had cancelled the scheduled hearing for January 29 as Justice Bobde was not available that day.

The fresh notice issued by the apex court registry said all the petitions in Ayodhya land dispute will come up for hearing on February 26.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad high court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77- acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

The five- judge bench was re- constituted on January 25 as Justice U. U. Lalit, who was a member of the original bench, had recused himself from hearing the matter.

When the new bench was constituted, Justice N. V. Ramana was excluded from the re- constitution bench.

Justices Bhushan and Nazeer made a come back to hear the Ayodhya land dispute matter — both were part of an earlier bench headed by then CJI Dipak Misra ( now retired).

It had on September 27, 2018, refused to refer to a five- judge Constitution Bench the reconsideration of the observation in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam.