Supreme Court to take up Ayodhya land dispute case today

New Delhi, July 11: The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. The Apex Court is likely to decide on the mediation in the matter.

The matter will be heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Gopal Singh Visharad, one of the plaintiffs in the original civil suit, moved the top court for early hearing of the case.

Visharad has approached the top court, saying the mediation is not likely to make any "headway" and that judicial adjudication is the "only solution".

"This has convinced the applicant herein that mediation would not yield any fruitful result and the only solution is judicial adjudication," Visharad added.

The Supreme Court had on March 8 ordered a time-bound 8-week mediation into the decades-old Ayodhya dispute while appointing the mediation panel comprising of three mediators - retired Supreme Court Justice Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sriram Panchu. UP's Faizabad was set as the location where the mediation would be held. Notably, the eight-week deadline for the mediation talks culminated earlier on May 3.

The dispute involves 2.77 acres of land in Ayodhya where a 16th Century mosque, said to be built by Mughal emperor Babur, stood. The Hindu activists who razed it in December 1992, believe that it was built on the ruins of an ancient temple marking the birthplace of Lord Ram.

On May 10, the court granted the mediation committee time till August 15 to give its report on the efforts made to resolve the long-pending title dispute. This was done after the panel filed an interim report on before the constitution bench led by the CJI.