Judge wants amicable settlement of Babri case

One of the three judges on the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court today disagreed with the majority order rejecting the plea for deferring the verdict in the Babri Masjid title suit. 

Justice Dharam Veer Sharma, while not concurring with the view of the other two judges – Justice S U Khan and Justice Sudhir Agarwal – wrote a dissenting note, saying an out-of-court settlement could have been explored through mediation or conciliation.

The judge also did not agree with the ruling of the two other judges imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on the petitioners who filed the deferment application.

Justice Sharma, who did not sign the September 17 order issued by the special bench, said the parties involved in the case should have been given the freedom to try and work out an amicable settlement until the day of the verdict.

Justice Sharma said he was not consulted by his colleagues before the decision to reject the deferment plea was taken. “I am sorry to say that I was not consulted by my brother judges before they passed their order. Otherwise, I would have expressed my views then itself,” Sharma said in his order.

“In its order dated July 27, the special bench had unanimously given top priority to efforts for trying to resolve the issue through mediation or conciliation even until a day before the proposed pronouncement of the final verdict on September 24.”

Justice Sharma took strong exception to remarks by his co-judges in their order on September 17 about certain “mischievous intentions” behind the application for postponement. “I do not see any mischievous intention behind the move,” he said, while reiterating that the fine of Rs 50,000 slapped on the applicant was also not in consonance with the law.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh today alleged the Centre had not allocated adequate central security forces for the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya title suit slated for September 24.

According to the state government, the Centre had provided only 52 companies of central forces, much below what the state government had asked for.