New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would fix in January 2019 the date on which final hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute would commence. The constitution of the three-judge bench that will hear the case will also be decided in January. This pushes back the chances of a verdict before the 2019 general elections.
The apex court had on 27 September refused to refer to a larger bench its 1994 judgment holding that a mosque was not integral to the practice of Islam. The issue had arisen from a judgment in the Ismail Faruqui versus Union of India case where the court considered the acquisition of a religious place and held that a mosque was not integral to the practice of Islam.
The court’s 2:1 majority ruling was on the limited aspect of whether the law laid down by it in its 1994 judgment should be revisited by a larger bench as the wider Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute was being heard by a three-judge bench.
In the 1994 judgment, it was held that offering prayers at a particular location would not be an essential part of religious practice, unless the place had a particular significance for that religion.
The court was hearing a total of 13 appeals filed against a 2010 judgment of the Allahabad high court in four civil suits challenging the high court verdict that ordered a three-way division of the disputed 2.77-acre site. On 7 February, the court said the matter would be heard as a “pure land dispute”.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court had ruled in favour of partitioning the land equally among three parties—the Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and ‘Ram Lalla’ (infant Lord Ram), represented by the Hindu Mahasabha.
A civil suit for deciding the title of the property on which the Babri Masjid stood before it was demolished on 6 December 1992 had been filed before the high court. The apex court had stayed the decision in 2011.