SC rejects plea to defer Ayodhya case verdict

The Supreme Court today dismissed the plea seeking deferment of the verdict on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Mas-jid title suit by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.

The newly-constituted three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia gave a unanimous order rejecting the petition seeking a last-minute settlement among the different religious groups.

The petition was moved by one Ramesh Chandra Tripathi — one of the 27 litigants. Attorney General G E Vahanvati and several other important litigants argued their case for two hours in the morning, before the apex court bench read out the two-line order in the afternoon.

The Supreme Court is not bound to give reasons for not admitting a special leave petition and therefore the order did not go into the points argued before it.

Attorney General Vahanvati, who was asked to give his view, said the best possible solution would be a settlement, but if that was not possible, the law and order situation could not be allowed to continue in “sustained animation.”

The judgment in the title suit for ownership of the disputed site, one way or the other, should come without any further hitches, he argued.

The Allahabad high court had dismissed Tripathi’s earlier plea before the court seeking a deferring of the verdict slated for September 24. Last week, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court stayed the delivery of the verdict, and referred the case to the Chief Justice, as the two judges could not come to an agreement on the order.

Vahanvati clarified that there was no provision in the Constitution to extend the term of a high court judge, as suggested by the petitioner. One of the judges in the three-judge bench of the high court is retiring in two days. The suggestion of senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, Tripathi’s counsel, was “incredible”, the AG said.

All the parties in the case, except Tripathi and the Nirmohi Akhada, argued in favour of delivering the judgment immediately. Tripathi’s counsel asked the court to take a “pro-active” role and show judicial activism to avoid the consequences of delivery of the judgment, pointing to the Mumbai riots. The other judges on the Supreme Court bench were Justice Aftab Alam and Justice K S Radhakrishnan.