- By Abhinav Gupta
- Mon, 14 Oct 2019 12:01 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: After a 69-year-long court battle, the hearing in the politically sensitive Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute at Ayodhya will enter into its final leg on Monday when the Supreme Court resumes proceedings on the 38th day after the week-long Dussehra break.
Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the issue, the authorities have imposed Section 144 across Ayodhya district till December 2019 which prohibits assembly of four or more persons.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi-led five-judge Constitution bench had began the day-to-day hearing in the vexatious dispute on August 6 after the mediation proceedings failed to find an amicable solution. It had set October 18 as the last date to conclude hearing in the matter, but later preponed it to October 17.
Thursday would be last day for wrapping up the hearing in the case and the judgment in the matter is to be pronounced by November 17, the day the Chief Justice of India will demit the office.
Fourteen appeals have been filed in the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court’s 2010 judgment, delivered in four civil suits, which had partitioned the 2.77-acre disputed land equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Initially, five lawsuits were filed in the lower court. The first one was filed by Gopal Singh Visharad, a devotee of 'Ram Lalla', in 1950 to seek enforcement of the right to worship of Hindus at the disputed site.
In the same year, the Paramahansa Ramachandra Das had also filed the lawsuit for continuation of worship and keeping the idols under the central dome of the now-demolished disputed structure. The plea was later withdrawn.
Later, the Nirmohi Akahara also moved the trial court in 1959 seeking management and 'shebaiti' (devotee) rights over the 2.77 acre disputed land.
Then came the lawsuit of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Wakf Board which moved the court in 1961, claiming title right over the disputed property.
The deity, 'Ram Lalla Virajman' through next friend and former Allahabad High Court judge Deoki Nandan Agrawal, and the Janambhoomi (the birthplace) moved the lawsuit in 1989, seeking title right over the entire disputed property on the key ground that the land itself has the character of the deity and of a 'Juristic entity'.
Later, all the lawsuits were transferred to the Allahabad High Court for adjudication following the demolition of the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri masjid structure on December 6, 1992, sparking communal riots in the country.
Earlier, the bench, also comprising justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, had said it would wrap up the hearing by October 17, a day sooner than the earlier schedule.
Fixing the schedule for the final leg of the lengthy arguments, it had said that the Muslim side would complete the arguments on October 14 and thereafter, two days would be granted to the Hindu parties to sum up their rejoinders by October 16.
(With PTI inputs)
