The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it won't refer the 1994 case that held that mosque land could be acquired and refused to refer it to a larger bench.
However, it said that the observation had to be looked at under the context of immunity from acquistion and could not be used as a governing factor.
Justice Ashok Bhushan, pronouncing the verdict, said that the 1994 observation had to be looked at "he context of acqusition of mosque and made with respect to the facts of that case."
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer pronounced the verdict, which had reserved it on July 20.
The court said this would not affect other suits.
However, while CJI Mishra and Justice Bushan refused to send it to a larger bench, Justice Nazeer dissented.
He said:
This was on a batch of pleas by Muslim groups on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute seeking reconsideration of a Supreme Court observation made in a 1994 verdict that a mosque was not integral to Islam by a larger bench.
The groups had argued that the issue of whether mosques were integral to Islam needed to be reconsidered as it would have an effect on the judgement of the Ayodhya case.
The Uttar Pradesh government had argued in the Supreme Court that Muslim groups were trying to delay the hearings inn the Ayodhya case by asking the court to reconsider its observation.