SC's 5-judge Constitution bench to hear Ayodhya case tomorrow
January 09, 2019 19:41
A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Thursday the politically sensitive case of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute in Ayodhya.
The bench will be headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprise of Justices S A Bobde, N V Ramana, U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud.
A three-judge bench of the top court had on September 27 last year, by 2:1 majority, refused to refer to a five-judge constitution bench for reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgement that a mosque was not integral to Islam. The matter had arisen during the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute.
When the matter was last taken up on January 4, there was no indication that the case would be referred to a constitution bench as the apex court had simply said that further orders in the matter would be passed on January 10 by "the appropriate bench, as may be constituted".
The newly set up five-judge bench comprises not only the incumbent CJI but the four judges who are in line to be CJI in the future.
Justice Gogoi's successor would be Justice Bobde followed by Justices Ramana, Lalit and Chandrachud.
As many as 14 appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad high court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Various Hindutva organisations have been demanding an ordinance on early construction of Ram temple at the disputed site.
-- PTI
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