On Jan. 10, SC to decide the future date to begin the hearing

New Delhi: In a 60-second hearing this morning, the Supreme Court deferred the Ayodhya temple-mosque case and said a Bench would decide on Jan. 10 when to take up the case.

Though the Court Number 1 was jam-packed with lawyers and journalists in anticipation of some orders for day-to-day hearing of Ayodhya dispute, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi made it a 15-second affair by reading out the order — “further orders will be passed by appropriate Bench on January 10”.

Senior advocates Harish Salve and Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for different parties, did not even get the opportunity to make any submission. The Supreme Court also dismissed a PIL seeking to hear the Ayodhya matter on urgent and day to day basis. The PIL was filed by an advocate Harinath Ram in November 2018. Ram had urged the top court to hear the matter on an urgent basis and in a time-bound manner.

On Dec. 24, a Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi had decided on “fixing the date of hearing before the appropriate Bench.” On the same day, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said that the central government wants the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit to be heard on day-to-day basis in the Court.

On Nov. 12, the Supreme Court had rejected a plea seeking an early hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit. SC had last year rejected a plea by Muslim parties to refer Ayodhya land dispute to a five-judge constitution bench and had fixed hearing to commence from Oct. 29.

However, on Oct 29, the SC had posted the matter for “appropriate orders” on January 4. In 2010, the Allahabad High Court had divided the disputed land in Ayodhya into three parts for each of the parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.