Ayodhya land dispute case: Supreme Court to examine plea for early hearing

The plea has been filed by Rajendra Singh, son of Gopal Singh Visharad, who was one of the plaintiffs in the original civil suit regarding the Ayodhya land.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to look into the plea of a litigant in the Ayodhya dispute who urged the court to take up the pending appeals for hearing since there was “not much progress” in the court-ordered mediation to find a solution to the issue.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose asked senior counsel P S Narasimha, who made the submission during mentioning hours, to hand over the plea to court officials, indicating it will take a call on it.

The plea has been filed by Rajendra Singh, son of Gopal Singh Visharad, who was one of the plaintiffs in the original civil suit regarding the Ayodhya land.

Singh also requested the court “that the mediation proceedings be declared to have been concluded”.

A resident of Ayodhya, Visharad had moved the court of civil judge, Faizabad, in 1950, claiming that his right to worship was impeded by the state government, which disallowed him from going near the idol. He had sought an injunction against the removal of idols.

Singh’s application stated, “Despite initial reluctance in the process of mediation, the applicant herein wholeheartedly participated in the mediation proceedings conducted by three eminent persons appointed by the court. However, in three meetings participated during five months, neither any concrete proposal has come from anyone nor any headway is likely to be made in the process of mediation. The applicant does not believe any substantial development has occurred/can occur, and it appears there is no probability of any possible settlement between the parties.”

Singh said he was not called for the mediation proceedings that took place in June 2019.

During the meetings, the applicant stated, “suggestions have been made which are not even within the scope of the present mediation in any way and are political in nature”. This, Singh stated, “convinced” him that mediation “would not yield any fruitful result, and the only solution is judicial adjudication”.

On March 8, a Constitution Bench headed by CJI Gogoi had ordered mediation to attempt a solution to the Ayodhya dispute. The court appointed retired SC judge F M Ibrahim Kalifulla to head the panel. Spiritual teacher Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu are its other members.

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