Supreme Court to pass order in Ayodhya land dispute case on 5 March; case may be sent for court-monitored mediation

Supreme Court will pass an order in the Ayodhya Ram-Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid land dispute case on 5 March on whether the case will be referred to a court-appointed mediator, a five-judge bench said on Tuesday. The bench, comprising of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, asked the parties to explore the possibility of mediation to resolve the land dispute. “Even if there is 1 per cent chance, mediation should be done,” the bench said. [caption id=“attachment_5731831” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of the Supreme Court. AP[/caption] The apex court was to decide the date and schedule of hearings in the matter, which was postponed after disagreement over the translation of documents. The hearing began with the CJI asking lawyers senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing a Muslim party, and senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan for Ram Lalla to peruse the secretary general’s report on the status of documents in the case, seeking consensus on their translation. While Vaidyanathan said says translations were verified and accepted by all parties in December 2017, Dhavan said he will have to “check the veracity of translated documents”, requesting the CJI for 8-12 weeks for the same. Dhavan also opposed to the mediation, referring to the Allahabad HC verdict where it was unsuccessful. Since the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict directing that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be divided equally among the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla, 14 appeals have been filed in the SC against it.