The civil suit on the Ayodhya land dispute will now be heard by a newly constituted three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on 29 October, the apex court said on Thursday, 27 September.
The SC on Thursday 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.
In the three-judge bench, Justice S Abdul Nazeer dissented from the judgment of CJI Dipak Misra and Justice Bhushan.
The issue of whether a mosque is integral to Islam had cropped up when the three-judge bench was hearing the batch of appeals filed against the Allahabad HC's 2010 verdict by which the disputed land on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid area was divided equally among three parties – the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
- In a majority 2:1 verdict, the SC bench headed by CJI Misra said the civil suit has to be decided on the basis of evidence and the previous verdict has no relevance on it
- Justice Nazeer had said a Constitution Bench must decide what constitutes essential practices of a religion and only thereafter the Ayodhya land dispute should be heard
- A reconstituted three-judge bench will be hearing the civil suit on the Ayodhya land dispute as CJI Misra will retire on 2 October
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'This Isn't a Matter of Religious Dispute': Uma Bharti
Welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision, Union Minister Uma Bharti said she believes that the work on Ram Mandir will begin soon.
“This isn’t a matter of religious dispute, as Ayodhya is an important religious place for Hindus because it is the Ram Janambhoomi. But for Muslims, it isn’t a religious place, for them it is Mecca. This matter was created and it finally got transformed into a land dispute.”Uma Bharti
'Dispute Should Be Resolved at the Earliest': Yogi Adityanath
Asking for resolution of the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute at the earliest, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said:
It is for the country’s benefit that the dispute associated with Sri Ramchandra Bhoomi gets resolved at the earliest. Majority of this nation wants a solution to this at the earliest. We appeal that this matter be resolved as soon as possible.Yogi Adiytanath, as quoted by ANI
'Enemies of Secularism Will Use the Judgment to Realise Their Ideological Objectives': Owaisi
Reacting to the Supreme Court's decision on Thursday, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi said:
“It would have been better if this issue was referred to a Constitution Bench. Also, I have an apprehension that the enemies of secularism in this country will use this judgment to realise their ideological objectives.”
'We're Confident That a Just Verdict Will be Reached at the Earliest': RSS
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to hold the hearing on the Ram Janmabhoomi case from 29 October by a three-member bench.
We welcome this decision and are confident that a just verdict will be reached over the case at the earliest.RSS