UPDATE: SC lifts stay, Ayodhya verdict on Sept 30

The Supreme Court today cleared the way for the Allahabad high court to deliver the much awaited Ayodhya judgment, as it dismissed the petition seeking a last-minute settlement among the different religious groups. Now it is for the Lucknow bench of the high court to announce the date of the judgment.

A newly-constituted bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia dismissed the petition moved by one of the 27 parties in the high court, without giving reasons, though the Attorney General and the important litigants argued their case for two hours in the morning. The two-line order was delivered 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 them.

Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati, who was asked to give his view, stated that 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, according to him.

The judgment was scheduled to be delivered on September 24, but one of the litigants, Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, moved an application before the high court seeking postponement of the decision as one final attempt to resolve the dispute through mediation should be tried. When the high court dismissed it, imposing cost of Rs 50,000 on him, he moved the Supreme Court.

Last week, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court stayed the delivery of the judgment, but referred the case to the Chief Justice as the two judges could not agree 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, counsel for Tripathi, was “incredible”, AG said.

 All the parties in the case, except Tripathi and Nirmoy 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 out the Mumbai riots. 

The other judges on the Supreme Court bench were Justice Aftab Alam and Justice K S Radhakrishnan.