Supreme Court will hear Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute on 4 January

December 25: Supreme Court finally finds time to hear the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute. The apex court is scheduled to take up a batch of petitions for hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case on January 4. The matter is listed before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice SK Kaul.

The bench is likely to constitute a three-judge bench for hearing as many as 14 appeals filed against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgement, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land be partitioned equally among three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. Over the last few months, the Ayodhya dispute has returned to the political centre stage and had come up during campaigning for the five states that voted new governments this month.

The apex court had put off hearing the temple case in October, turning down requests for early hearings from the Yogi Adityanath government and others. The ruling had triggered a sharp reaction from groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – which had described the court ruling as an insult to the Hindu community.

The plea for early hearing was moved by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) which is one of the respondents in the appeal filed by legal heirs of M Siddiq, one of the original litigants in the case.