Ayodhya Case LIVE: SC Adjourns Final Hearing Till March 14, Will Deal With it as 'Pure Land Dispute'

Supreme Court asks parties before Allahabad HC in Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute to file in two weeks English translation of documents exhibited by them. It also directs its Registry to provide copies of video cassettes, which were part of HC records, to parties on actual cost. 

The Supreme Court says it deal with the case as a “pure land dispute”. “Once we start hearing the case, it will go on,” says the top court.

Supreme Court fixes 14 March as the next date of hearing, as some of the documents and translations are yet to be filed.

Cases still not ready to be heard, documentation is not complete. Supreme Court likely to adjourn it for March 7.                 

Bench comprising of Chief Justice of India, Hon'ble Ashok Bhushan and Hon'ble Abdul Nazeer is hearing the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute 

The Ayodhya Sadbhavna Samnvyay Maha Samiti has made a proposal to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on the dispute. In a letter Samiti president Amarnath Mishra has proposed that the dispute site be given to the Hindu parties, while a mosque can be built on the land “that will be made available by the Nirmohi Akhara”. Mishra is a close aide of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who has been meeting party to the dispute in the last few months.

March 21, 2017| In a judicial first for the country, then Chief Justice of India J S Khehar had offered to mediate out of court and settle the Ram Janmabhoomi - Babri Masjid dispute, which has been dragging on for almost 24 years. Since the issue involved claims which are lost in history, the Khehar, while hearing an application by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to expedite the hearing, had said, it "was a matter of sentiment and must be resolved amicably.” 

If Rajiv Gandhi Was Alive, Babri Dispute Would Have Ended: Babri Action Committee Convenor

All India Babri Masjid Action Committee (AIBMAC) Convenor Zafaryab Jilani, who held a series of meetings with the Congress leadership at the peak of the Ayodhya dispute, on December 6, 2017 told News18 that the request was turned down as the CJI cited insufficiency of judges to handle the case. According to Jilani, Rajiv Gandhi’s suggestion was that five senior most judges of the SC form a commission and decide this matter to see ‘whether there was any evidence to the effect that Babri Masjid was constructed after the demolition of a living Ram temple’. The letter was sent to the Chief Justice of India and the CJI replied that there weren’t sufficient judges.

The next suit was filed by the Sunni Central Board of Waqfs, UP and nine Muslims of Ayodhya, most of whom have died. Some of them have been substituted in the case and some not.  In this suit, one of the defendants was Prince Anjum Qadar, President of the All India Shia Conference.  The last suit was filed by Bhagwan Sri Ram Birajman at Sri Ram Janam Bhoomi Ayodhya, Asthan Sri Ram Janam Bhoomi, Ayodhya and Sri Deoki Nandan Agarwala, a senior advocate and retired High Court judge. (2/2)

RECAP | The Faces of Ayodhya Dispute

The suit started in 1950 when Gopal Singh Visharad filed a title suit with the Allahabad High Court seeking injunction to offer puja (prayers) at the disputed site.  In 1959, another suit was filed by Paramhans Ramchandra Das against Zahoor Ahmad and seven others. The first five defendants were Muslims, residents of Ayodhya. Defendant No.6 was the state of UP and defendant No 7 was Deputy Commissioner, Faizabad. Sunni Central Board of Waqfs was added as defendant No.8 in 1989. This suit was later withdrawn and treated as dismissed in the 2010 verdict. The next suit was filed by Nirmohi Akhara through its mahant. After the death of original the mahant, his chela was substituted. Defendant No 1 in the suit initially was Babu Priya Datt Ram. Thereafter, the new receiver, Sri Jamuna Prasad, was substituted in his place by a court order in October 1989. The suit of Nirmohi Akhara is carried forward by its mahant. (1/2)

With parties impleading themselves in the case with each hearing since the 1950s, News18.com takes a look at the plaintiffs and defendants in the original suit and how the case shaped up till 2010 when the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court divided the property into three equal parts between the Nirmohi Akhara, Sunni Waqf Board and Ram Lalla Virajman. 

RECAP | Here’s a look at how the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case has panned out:

1949: Idols of Ram Lalla are placed surreptitiously under the central dome of the Babri Mosque

1950: Lawyer Gopal Visharad files first suit in Faizabad civil court for rights to offer prayers to Ram Lalla

1950: Paramhansa Ramachandra Das files a suit for continuation of prayers and keeping idols in the structure

1959: Nirmohi Akhara files third suit, seeking direction to hand over charge of the disputed site.

1961: Sunni Central Waqf Board files fourth suit

1986: District judge orders locks be removed. Site opened for Hindu worshippers

1989: Pending suits are transferred to the High Court

1991: UP government acquires land around the structure for convenience of devotees who attend Ram Lalla darshan

1992: Babri Mosque is demolished by kar sevaks

1993: Government takes over 67 acres of land around the area, seeks apex court opinion on whether a Hindu place of worship existed there before the structure was built

1994: Case goes back to Lucknow bench of HC, suits heard again from 1996

2003: The Allahabad HC orders a survey to find out whether a temple existed on the site. ASI excavations claim features of a 10th century temple

2010: HC rules that the land be divided into three parts —1/3rd going to the Hindu Mahasabha, 1/3rd to Sunni Waqf Board and 1/3rd to Nirmohi Akhara. Mahasabha and Sunni Waqf Board move SC, challenging the HC verdict

2011: Dubbing it as “strange”, SC stays the Allahabad HC order. None of the parties had demanded partition of the land, it says

2015: VHP announces a nationwide drive to collect stones for building Ram Temple

2016: Subramanian Swamy says he hopes the construction would begin before year-end

March 6, 2017: SC hints at reviving criminal conspiracy charges against 13 BJP and other Right-wing leaders in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. The conspiracy charges had been dropped by the special trial court in Lucknow on technical grounds

March 21, 2017: CJI Khehar offers to act as mediator to solve the dispute and advises Swamy that negotiation can solve this ‘sensitive issue’

April 19, 2017: SC restores conspiracy charges against BJP leaders, including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti

May 31, 2017: Special CBI court charges the trio with criminal conspiracy

July 21, 2017: After Swamy mentions the matter again for urgent hearing before the SC, Khehar says the court will take an early decision

August 8, 2017: Shia Central Waqf Board files 30-page affidavit in court, taking back its claim on the disputed land and offering to settle for a mosque in a nearby Muslim-dominated area

August 11, 2017: SC bench headed by CJI-designate Dipak Misra begins hearing the matter

December 5, 2017: The Supreme Court deferred the start of the final hearing in the Ayodhya title dispute to 8 February 2018. The case was heard by a bench comprising chief justice Dipak Misra and justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer.

A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.  

The Supreme court rejected the submission for postponing the hearing till 2019, including hearing of the matter by a constitution bench. At that point of time, Senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal and Rajeev Dhavan sought the leave of the court to withdraw from the hearing. 

The Supreme Court had asked the advocates on records (AoRs), dealing with as many 14 civil appeals against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in the land dispute, to ensure that all requisite documents are translated, filed and numbered before the apex court Registry. The special bench of the apex court is seized of a total 14 appeals filed against the High Court judgement delivered in four civil suits. 

The bench, also comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, had made clear on December 5 last year, that it would begin final hearing on the petitions from February 8 and had asked the parties to file the requisite pleadings in the meantime.  Senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal and Rajeev Dhavan had contended that the civil appeals be either referred to a five or seven judge bench or posted in 2019 keeping in mind the sensitive nature of the case and its ramifications on the country's secular fabric and polity.

The Supreme Court is likely to commence from today the crucial hearing on a batch of petitions in the politically-sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case. The cross petitions challenge the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict that had divided the disputed site between the Nirmohi Akhara, Lord Ram deity and the Sunni Waqf Board. The matter is listed for hearing at 2 pm on Thursday before the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer.