Ayodhya hearing resumes in Supreme Court

New Delhi, Aug 26: The Supreme Court has resumed hearing on the appeals in the Ayodhya case.

The Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi commenced hearing in the case.

On the last date of hearing, counsel for the original litigants sought enforcement of his rights to worship at the disputed site.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Gopal Singh Visharad, one of the original litigants said, "I am making my submissions with reference to Parasaran's and Vaidyanathan's submissions that the place is itself a divine site and that I being the worshipper my right to worship, which is a civil right, should not be curtailed," Kumar told a bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.

Senior advocates K Prasaran and C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for 'Ram Lalla Virajaman', a deity which is one of the parties in the decades old dispute, had earlier told the bench that the birthplace of Lord Ram at Ayodhya is itself a deity and no one can claim ownership right over the sacred place by merely putting up a structure like a mosque.

Vaidyanathan had said that neither Nirmohi Akhara nor the Muslim parties can take benefit of the legal principal of adverse possession to claim ownership right over the 2.77 acres disputed land in Ayodhya.

Visharad had filed a lawsuit in 1950 seeking enforcement of his right to worship at the disputed site.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77 acres land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties - the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

Babri Masjid was demolished by right-wing activists on December 6, 1992, in Ayodhya, leading to a protracted legal battle.