Ayodhya: Muslim parties' lawyer loses cool, terms judge's tone as 'aggressive'

Losing his cool, a senior advocate for Muslim parties in the Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri masjid land dispute case in the Supreme Court, told a curious judge Friday that he was seeing "some kind of aggression" in his tone.

A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which was hearing the decades-old politically sensitive case on 27th day, did not re-assemble after the lunch break and a source said that the CJI was not feeling well.

"The CJI was a bit unwell that is why the board was discharged post-lunch," the source said.

The bench was earlier questioning senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Sunni Waqf Board and others including original litigant M Siddiq, about the testimony of a witness who had visited the disputed site in 1935 and had deposed before the Allahabad High Court in 2000.

The bench, also comprising justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, asked Dhavan to read some other portions of the testimony of witness Ram Surat Tiwari dealing with prayers offered by the Hindus at the railings on the disputed site.

"This witness said that he had gone there (site) in 1935... Read his statement, whether we believe it or not is something else," Justice Bhushan asked Dhavan.

"I can see some kind of aggression in My lord's tone," Dhavan said, adding, "If lordships are saying that I am twisting the evidence then I will read that out."
Senior advocates C S Vaidyanathan and Ranjit Kumar objected to the assertions of Dhavan who quickly apologised to the bench. "My apologies. Sometimes, I am taken aback. I get frightened, what should I do... When there is a hearing which is going on for this long, we sometimes get carried away."