NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is likely to begin the hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict trifurcating the disputed site at Ayodhya into three parts on Monday.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph would hear the appeals filed in the matter.
The appeals have been posted for hearing on Monday before a Bench which neither has Justice Ashok Bhushan nor Justice Abdul Nazeer, who were part of the Bench which originally heard the matter.
The Bench of then CJI Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer by a majority ruling of 2:1 while rejecting the plea challenging the High Court judgment had directed that the matter would be heard by a three-judge Bench from October 29.
Last month, the court had declined to refer to a five-judge Constitution Bench the issue of reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam which had arisen during the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute. Justice Ashok Bhushan, who had penned the judgment for himself and the Chief Justice of India, had said it has to find the context in which the five-judge Bench had delivered the 1994 verdict.
However, Justice S Abdul Nazeer had disagreed with the two judges and had said whether a mosque is integral to Islam has to be decided considering religious beliefs which requires detailed consideration.
The issue of whether a mosque is integral to Islam had cropped up when the three-judge Bench was hearing the appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court’s verdict.
The High Court Bench, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had ordered that 2.77 acres of land be partitioned equally among three parties, namely the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
A few days ago, Union Minister and firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh said the Supreme Court must expedite the hearing in the controversial Ram Mandir case and come out with its judgment at the earliest as people’s patience was wearing thin.
“People of this country are waiting for years for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and now that patience is giving way. I appeal to the Supreme Court to start the hearing in this case at the earliest and come out with the judgment,” he said.