Muslim parties trash reports of settlement in Ayodhya case

The Muslim parties in Ayodhya case on Friday trashed media reports about them reaching a settlement by giving up their claim over the disputed land.

In a statement, advocate-on-record for Muslim parties, Ejaz Maqbool, denied the reports that Muslim parties filed a statement for settlement in the case.

Notably, Sunni Waqf Board lawyer Shahid Rizvi had on the final day of hearing on Wednesday said that a compromise had been reached in the case.

"We are taken aback by the media reports attributed to Shahid Rizvi, advocate-on-record, that UP Sunni Central Waqf Board was willing to withdraw the claim on the site of the Babri Masjid. This was broadcasted by all the media agencies and newspapers that UP Sunni Central Waqf Board has agreed to abandon their claim subject to certain conditions," the statement said.

It said the Supreme Court-appointed Mediation Panel or Nirvani Akhara, another party in the case, was to be blamed for the "leak".

"The leak to the press may have been inspired by either Mediation Committee directly or those who participated in the said mediation proceedings or participants. (It needs emphasis that such a leak was in total violation of the orders of the Supreme Court that had directed that such proceedings should remain confidential)," the statement read.

The statement said that an out-of-the-court settlement was "difficult in the circumstances when the parties had openly stated that they were not open to settlement".

"Accordingly, we must make it absolutely clear that we the appellants before Supreme Court do not accept the proposal made which has been leaked out to the press, nor the procedure by which the mediation has taken place nor the manner in which a withdrawal of the claim has been suggested as a compromise," Maqbool's statement for Muslim sides said.

The matter was heard by a five-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on a day-to-day basis (five days in a week) starting August 6 after the mediation panel failed to come to an out-of-the-court settlement in the matter.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising of Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer reserved its judgement in the case on Wednesday.

The court is expected to deliver its judgement between November 4-17 on a batch of petitions challenging the September 30, 2010, Allahabad High Court judgement trifurcating the 2.77 acres of the disputed land at Ayodhya into three equal parts to Ram Lalla, Sunni Waqf Board and Nirmohi Akhara.