The day to day hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case began on August 6. The case is being heard by a 5 judge Constitutional bench comprising of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer.
The case was considered for a day to day hearing after the efforts to arrive at an amicable settlement through mediation failed.
Today, the Senior Counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the Sunni Waqf Board, raised objections to the Constitution Bench hearing the Ayodhya case in a five-day format.
Objecting to the bench’s decision to hear the case five days in a week, Dhavan submitted that he will “not be able to assist” the court if the hearing is “rushed through”.
As per reports, Dhawan was informed by the SC bench that it will consider granting him a mid-week break if he needs time to prepare.
Day 4 of the hearing began with the counsel for deity Ram Lalla Virajmaan putting forth their submissions. Rajeev Dhavan, the counsel for the Sunni Waqf Board stated, “It is not possible to assist the court if it is heard on all days of the week. This is the first appeal and the hearing cannot be rushed in this manner.”
Dhavan maintained that the court was hearing the first appeals since Allahabad High court delivered the verdict in the case and that the hearing as such cannot be rushed through.
“Being the first appeal, documentary evidence has to be studied. Many documents are in Urdu and Sanskrit, which have to be translated”, Dhavan said, maintaining that if the court has taken a decision to hear the case on all five days of the week, then he might have to leave the case.
Breaking the regular trend, the apex court had decided to take up the high profile case for hearing on Fridays as well, which is actually a miscellaneous day. Normally Mondays and Fridays are miscellaneous days when the Court takes up fresh matters for admission and after notice cases. A final hearing case like the Ayodhya case is taken up for hearing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays which are non-miscellaneous days.
The Constitutional bench, probably, decided to fast track the case to ensure that the hearing in the case is completed before CJI Ranjan Gogoi superannuates on November 17 this year.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, reacting to Rajeev Dhavan’s submission clarified that the court has heard his grievances and will inform him about it soon.
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The daily hearings were prescribed by the Constitutional bench on August 2 after taking note of the failed mediation by a three-member panel led by former Supreme Court judge FMI Kalifulla, also comprising of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate and renowned mediator Sriram Panchu.
The panel had said in its report that the Hindu and the Muslim parties had not been able to find a solution to the long-standing title suit.