A five-member bench of the Apex Court has set October 18 as the target date to complete the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute case. The court added that the petitioners can now decide if they want to settle the dispute through mediation. The daily hearings will however, continue in the case.
On the 26th day of the daily hearings, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said, “as per the estimate of tentative dates to finish the hearing in the case, we can say that the submissions have to be likely completed by October 18.”
“Simultaneously the mediation process can go along with the hearing, which is going on in Supreme Court, and if an amicable settlement is reached through by it, the same can be filed before the SC,” he added.
Earlier on September 17, CJI Gogoi had asked for a tentative schedule for concluding arguments from the involved parties.
The Supreme Court had started the day-to-day hearing of the land dispute case since August 2, after the panel it had formed to resolve the dispute through mediation failed in in building up a consensus among the parties to arrive at an amicable resolution.
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He also urged all the parties involved to make a joint effort to conclude the same by Oct 18. It is important to keep in mind that CJI Gogoi retires from his position on November 17.
More than a dozen appeals were filed against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties – the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.