The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea for an early hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the court had already directed the case to be put up before an appropriate Bench in January to fix the date for hearing the appeals. “We have already passed the order. The appeals are coming up in January. Permission declined,” he said, rejecting an oral mentioning by advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, representing the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.
On October 29, the court had clarified that the decision on when to start hearing the appeals would be decided by an “appropriate Bench” before which the matter would come up in January.
The ABHM is one of the respondents in the appeal filed by legal heirs of M. Siddiq in the case. “Since Ram Janambhoomi at Ayodhya is the matter of tremendous faith of Hindus, they are very much hopeful about the decision at an early date of the aforesaid appeals,” the ABHM said in its plea.
“We have our own priorities... whether hearing would take place in January, March or April would be decided by an appropriate Bench,” Chief Justice Gogoi had remarked orally.
Chief Justice Gogoi had repeated that all the court has ordered now is for the appeals to be posted in the first week of January before a Bench, that too, “not for hearing but for fixing the date of hearing.”
Last year, in the initial stages of hearing of the appeals, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on the side of certain Islamic bodies and private appellants, had suggested in court to post the Ayodhya hearings after July 15, 2019, post the General Elections.
