Mediation committee files interim Ayodhya report in SC , granted further time till Aug 15

New Delhi, May 10: The Supreme Court constitution bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices S A Bobde, Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer on Friday extended the time for completion of mediation in the Ayodhya-Babri Masjid land dispute case till August 15.

"We're not going to tell you what progress has been made, that's confidential," Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said during the hearing on Friday.

The extension was given on the basis of request made by the Chairman of the mediation panel retired SC judge Justice F M Khalifullah.

The court said the three-member mediation committee had submitted the report and sought time till August 15. Nobody would come in the way of the mediation process, the court said.

It allowed the parties to raise objections before the panel till June 30.

The apex court constituted three-member mediation committee, tasked with exploring the possibility of an amicable settlement in the decades-old, politically sensitive, Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, had submitted its interim report in a sealed cover.

The apex court had earlier said that the mediation process would commence within a week and the panel would submit the progress report within four weeks.

According to the reports, the interim report was filed with the apex court Registry on May 6, and the matter has been listed for hearing on Friday.

In the last hearing the apex court had directed the three-member committee, formed to mediate in the Ayodhya dispute case, to submit the status report within four weeks and a final report within eight weeks.

The decades-old dispute will be settled through mediation and decided to refer the matter to the panel, which will be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice F M Kallifulla.

The other two mediators include senior advocate Shri Ram Panchu and spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

The panel was asked by the apex court to hold an in-camera proceedings and complete it within eight weeks.

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-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.