Ayodhya case pure land dispute, won’t hear daily, says SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday told parties to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute that no special treatment will be given to the hearing of the case as in essence it is a “pure land dispute”. The court declined the request of Sunni Central Waqf Board for a day-to-day hearing while allowing parties to the case to file English translations of vernacular texts relied by both sides in two weeks before the next date of hearing on March 14.

As the Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer proceeded with the hearing of the case on Thursday a slew of applications were mentioned, requesting the Court either to allow intervention in the dispute by certain individuals and groups, allow translation of documents, exemption from filing original documents that were exhibited before the Allahabad High Court, and substitution of certain parties to the dispute.

All applications were allowed except the ones relating to impleadment or intervention to be considered on the next date.

The Bench made it clear that no political arguments of any kind will be entertained during the case hearing as the dispute to be addressed is a “pure land dispute”. The comment was relevant seen in the context of the previous hearing in the case where the proceedings witnessed unprecedented events with the Sunni Waqf Board seeking an adjournment till 2019, when the next Lok Sabha elections are to be held. One of the parties to the dispute even hinted at the urgency given to the hearing of the case by the CJI and commented that the hearing of the case will not finish before October 2018, the time when the present CJI retires.

Contrary to the high-decibel argument by Sunni Waqf Board on the previous date when a request was made to adjourn the case indefinitely till 2019, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan representing the Waqf Board on Thursday submitted that the case be heard on a day-to-day basis. The Bench refused to pass any order but indicated that never did the court intend to conduct a “day-to-day” hearing.

The court was informed that certain books filed in the set of appeals were in a language other than English. As the parties will be relying on the same, the Bench appointed two counsels to translate the texts - its first page and the portion being relied upon by each party, and file it in the Supreme Court Registry in two weeks.

The Bench further directed the Registry to supply copies of two video cassettes filed before the court to parties to the case on payment of its cost. With these directions, it is expected that the case will be ripe for hearing when it is taken up next at 2 pm on March 14.