The Supreme Court on Friday granted the three-member mediation committee time till 15 August for exploring the possibility of an amicable settlement in Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.
The panel had submitted report and sought time till 15 August. The court said nobody would come in way of mediation process.
The court has allowed parties to raise objections before the panel till 30 June.
The matter was heard by a five-judge Constitution bench comprising Chief justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.
The mediation panel is headed by former apex court judge F M I Kalifulla and includes founder of Art of Living foundation Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, a renowned mediator.
The bench was told earlier by Hindu bodies, except for Nirmohi Akhara, and Uttar Pradesh government that they oppose the court’s suggestion for mediation. The Muslim bodies supported the proposal.
While opposing the suggestion of mediation, Hindu bodies had argued that earlier attempts of reaching a compromise have failed and provisions of Civil Procedure Code (CPC) require public notice to be issued before the start of process.
The top court had directed that the mediation proceedings should be conducted with “utmost confidentiality” for ensuring its success and the views expressed by any of the parties including the mediators should be kept confidential and not be revealed to any other person.
However, it had refrained from passing any specific restrain order at this stage and instead empowered the mediators to pass necessary orders in writing, if so required, to restrain publication of the details of the mediation proceedings.
The top court had fixed the seat for mediation process in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh, around 7 km from Ayodhya, and said that the adequate arrangements including the venue of the mediation, place of stay of the mediators, their security, travel should be forthwith arranged by the state government so that proceedings could commence immediately.
It had also directed that the mediation proceedings be held in-camera as per the norms applicable to conduct the mediation proceedings.
Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, 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.
On 6 December 6 1992, the Babri Masjid, constructed at the disputed site in the 16th century by Shia Muslim Mir Baqi, was demolished.
(With PTI Inputs)