The daily hearings in the Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya came to an end at around 4 pm today. The apex court reserved its judgement. It is expected to be announced before the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi retires on November 17.
Earlier in the day, the CJI had hinted that the hearing was likely to be concluded by 5 pm today. He had said, “We will rise by 5pm. Enough is enough,” after a lawyer asked the Supreme Court for more time for the arguments.
There was high drama in the court today – the 40th day of the day-to-day hearing – as Rajeev Dhavan, representing Muslim petitioners including the Sunni Waqf Board in the title suit, tore up a map that showed the Ram Janmasthan. He said that map – forwarded by the Hindu petitioners, could not be submitted as evidence since the court had earlier refused to accept it. This followed a commotion, and the CJI threatened to walk out.
There have been 14 appeals filed in the apex court against the 2010 judgement by the Allahabad High Court, delivered in four civil suits that the 2.77 acre land be divided equally among three parties – the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nimrohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
The Ayodhya daily hearings holds the record of second longest hearing in the history of the Supreme Court, the longest being the Keshavananda Bharati case, which ran for 68 days. The hearings for the case started in Supreme Court on August 6 after the mediation proceedings could not reach a conclusive solution in the case.
The Ram temple has been a major issue politically, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stating that the party, being in power, would resolve the issue as mentioned in its manifesto.
In December 1992, right-wing activists razed a mosque on the spot, which they believed had been built by Mughal Emperor Babur after demolishing a temple that marked the birthplace of Lord Ram. This led to riots all over the country in which over 2,000 people had died.
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