Ram Temple-Babri Mosque title dispute: Five-judge SC bench to begin hearing of Ayodhya case from 10 January

The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up petitions for hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case from Thursday at 10.30 am, ANI reported.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will hear the Ayodhya case from 10 January. [caption id=“attachment_5857691” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The Ayodhya matter is listed before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.[/caption] The bench will also comprise Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud. On 4 January, a three-judge Supreme Court bench took up as many as 14 appeals filed against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits. The 2010 judgment had said that the 2.77-acre disputed land be partitioned equally among the three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. The apex court on 29 October had fixed the matter in the first week of January before an “appropriate bench”, which will decide the schedule of hearing. Later, an application was moved for according an urgent hearing by advancing the date, but the top court had refused the plea, saying it had already passed an order relating to the hearing on the matter. The plea for early hearing was moved by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) which is one of the respondents in the appeal filed by legal heirs of M Siddiq, one of the original litigants in the case.