NEW DELHI: The mediation panel set up by the Supreme Court for an out-of-court settlement to the Ayodhya land title dispute on Thursday submitted its report in a sealed cover to the apex court.
The top court had on March 8 appointed the three-member panel to talk to all stakeholders and try to reach a consensus to resolve the decades-old Ayodhya Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.
The panel was allowed time till July 31 to continue talks to develop a consensus between Hindu and Muslim parties on the temple dispute. Based on the report, the top court will decide its further proceedings on Friday.
In the last hearing, the court said it had received a report of the three-member mediation panel, headed by former apex court judge FMI Kalifulla, and took on record the contents.
The other two members of the panel are spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.
The three-member panel, led by retired Supreme Court judge FMI Kalifulla, was initially told to work within an August 15 deadline.
However, the court asked the mediation panel to submit an earlier status report after the successor of one of the original litigants, told the top court that the panel was not getting anywhere with mediation.
The court is hearing petitions challenging a 2010 Allahabad High Court order that trifurcated the 2.77-acre-site between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Sunni Central Waqf Board and Ram Lalla.
The judges had earlier indicated that if the mediation talks didn’t yield any result, it would resume hearings on the appeals filed before the constitution bench that could also be conducted on a day-to-day basis.