Hyderabad: Amidst high drama and demands for deferring the hearing till July 2019 (after Parliamentary elections), the Supreme Court on Tuesday posted for final hearing in February 2018 a batch of 13 appeals against an Allahabad High Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit in the disputed site in Ayodhya, granting 2/3rd of land to Hindus and 1/3rd to Muslims.
After a 90-minute preliminary hearing, a special bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer expressed “shock and surprise” at the request made by senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Sunni Wakf Board that the appeals should be heard only after July 2019.
The bench, however, refused to defer the hearing till July 2019.
Mr Sibal said the BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy had gone on record saying that Ram temple would be built before 2019 through legal means. They want to make it as an election manifesto and the court should not fall into the trap. He said these appeals are not ordinary property disputes as they “go to the heart of secular fabric of the country”. He said, “We can’t commence our arguments unless all the documents are before us. We need time to prepare for our arguments.”
