Ayodhya case: List in January to fix date of hearing says SC

New Delhi, Oct 29: The Supreme Court will in January decide on when the Ayodhya matter will be heard. The court said that it would decide in the first week of January, the composition of the Bench and also the date on when the matter will be heard.

In a one line observation, the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi said, 'list in the month of January, first week before an appropriate Bench for fixing the date of hearing.'

The CJI clarified that this does not mean that the appeals will be heard in January. It will be listed for fixing another date of hearing, the CJI also said. We have our own priorities. Whether it comes in January, February or March will be the call of the appropriate Bench, the CJI also said.

On September 27, the Supreme Court had declined to refer to a five-judge constitution bench the issue of reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam which had arisen during the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute.

In a majority verdict of 2:1, a three-judge bench headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra had said the civil suit has to be decided on the basis of evidence and the previous verdict has no relevance to this issue.

Justice Ashok Bhushan, who had penned the judgment for himself and the Chief Justice of India, had said it has to find out the context in which the five-judge bench had delivered the 1994 verdict. However, Justice S Abdul Nazeer had disagreed with the two judges and had said whether a mosque is integral to Islam has to be decided considering religious belief which requires detailed consideration.

The court had on September 27 said the civil suit on land dispute would be heard by a three-judge bench on October 29.

The issue whether a mosque is integral to Islam had cropped up when the three-judge bench was hearing the appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court's verdict.

The three-judge high court bench, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had ordered that the 2.77 acres of land be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.