Supreme Court defers hearing on Ram Temple dispute to January 10

NEW DELHI: Despite frantic attempts for an early hearing and a long delay, the Supreme Court on Friday said the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case would be heard on January 10, when further orders would be passed by an appropriate Bench.

Various Hindutva organisations have been demanding an ordinance on early construction of Ram temple at the disputed site.

According to the process, on that day, the matter will be listed before a newly constituted three-judge bench which will decide the way forward.

In a hearing which lasted for less than 60 seconds, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the appropriate orders on the hearings would be issued by the new bench and also dismissed a fresh petition that asked the court to give a reasoned order why the Ayodhya case is not being taken up on a priority basis.

The Supreme Court was hearing more than a dozen petitions against the Allahabad high court judgment of 2010 that had ordered partition of the 2.77 acre of disputed land in Ayodhya among three parties, namely, deity Ram Lalla, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Sunni Waqf Board.

The case has been pending in the apex court since 2010. During the previous hearings other issues also came for up like the issue whether mosque was an integral part of Islam. This was settled by the court last year when it refused to revisit a 1994-judgment on the matter. 

In October last year, the bench had fixed the matter in the first week of January before an appropriate bench, which will decide the schedule of hearing. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke on the issue. 

Leader Speak
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking in an interview earlier  this week, had said that the government would not follow the ordinance route for the temple till the judicial options have run out