New Delhi: A constitution bench will begin hearing the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute on Thursday. This bench will have Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S.A. Bobde, N.V. Ramana, U.U. Lalit and D.Y. Chandrachud.
The bench was constituted by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday and Interestingly, the four judges on the bench apart from the CJI are senior judges who are in succession to hold the post of chief justices in the future
On 4 January, the apex court had said that further orders in the case would be passed by an appropriate bench on 10 January but had not set up the bench. The issue could become central to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, impacting voter preferences.
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), which is 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 Supreme Court stayed this decision in 2011. The Shia Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh told the Supreme Court in August that it was amenable to building a mosque in a Muslim-dominated area, at a reasonable distance from the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site.