A Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra is scheduled to hear on August 11 a batch of appeals in the volatile Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi title dispute .
The Special Bench will include Justices Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer.
The court recently indicated that it would start hearing the long-pending appeals shortly.
On March 21, Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, had on an oral mentioning by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, suggested an out-of-court rapprochement among rival parties in the 68-year-old dispute. The Chief Justice had advocated peace negotiations.
On March 22, 2016, a Bench led by then Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur said that Dr. Swamy’s plea to “rebuild” the Ram temple would be sent to the appropriate Bench dealing with the Ramjanmabhoomi title dispute appeals. At that time, the Supreme Court had said that the case would be tagged with the appeals and heard in due course.
Tension, violence
The dispute, which has seen much tension and violence over the past decades, debuted in courts since the 1950s. On September 2010, a three-judge Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court held that Hindus have the right to the makeshift temple under the central dome of the Babri Masjid. The High Court ruled in favour of a three-part division of the disputed 2.77 acre area among Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and the Ram Lalla at the disputed site. The Bench had relied on Hindu faith, belief and folklore.
The Sunni Waqf Board and other parties filed their appeals in the Supreme Court against the 2010 judgment. The appeals have been pending in the Supreme Court for over six years. The litigation has records dating back to the 16th Century and written in several languages, including Arabic and Persian. The Allahabad High Court judgment which is under challenge is itself about 8,000 pages.
