SC refers Ayodhya land dispute case for mediation to explore amicable settlement

The Supreme Court Friday referred the decades-old politically sensitive Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a panel headed by former apex court judge F M I Kalifulla for exploring the possibility of an amicable settlement.

Spiritual guru and founder of Art of Living foundation Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, a renowned mediator, will be the other two members of the panel of mediators.

The mediation process will commence within a week and the panel will submit the progress report within four weeks, the top court said.

It said that the mediation proceedings, which would be held "in-camera", be completed within eight weeks which is the interregnum period granted earlier by the apex court to the parties in the main Ayodhya case to go through translations of oral and documentary evidences.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it does not find any "legal impediment" to make a reference to mediation for a possible settlement of the dispute.

"We therefore order accordingly, and having taken note of the names suggested by the parties, we are of the view that the following panel of mediators should be appointed to go into the dispute with liberty to the mediators to co-opt other members of the panel, if so required," it said.

Declaring the names, the bench said: "Justice (retd) Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla - Chairman, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Member, senior advocate Sriram Panchu - Member."