Ayodhya Case: SC Asks to Complete Arguments by Oct 18

TheSupreme Court on Thursday once again stressed on the need to complete argumentsin the Ayodhya land dispute case by October 18.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, while arguing the case both sides said that if arguments can't get over by October 18, there won't be an extra day. He said that the bench would have four weeks to write the judgment and it will be a miracle if the court delivers the judgment in four weeks. Justice Gogoi retires as the CJI on November 17.

Thefive-judge bench comprising of CJI Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud,Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer had last week set October 18 target tocomplete hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title case. The CJIhad called for a joint effort from all parties.  

Themediation panel comprised former SC judge FMI Kalifulla, spiritual guru andfounder of Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate SriramPanchu, a renowned mediator. The panel had conducted negotiations between Hinduand Muslim litigants for over four months to explore the possibility of asettlement. The top court had granted it an extension of three months tillAugust 15 on May 10, after the panel submitted an interim report to the court.

Thebench started holding daily hearings from August to fast-track the case thathas been pending for decades after a Supreme Court appointed mediationcommittee failed to develop a consensus among the parties for a solution.