CJI to head bench on Ayodhya

An appeal seeking to defer the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Ayodhya title suit will be heard by a new bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia, on Tuesday.

An appeal seeking to defer the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Ayodhya title suit will be heard by a new bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia, on Tuesday.

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The newly-constituted bench was formed after an earlier two-judge SC bench gave a split verdict due to a difference of opinion between Justices R.V. Raveendran and H.L. Gokhale.

That bench had on Thursday deferred the title suit verdict, scheduled to be announced the next day (September 24), by a week on retired bureaucrat Ramesh Chand Tripathi’s plea that the litigating sides be given more time to settle amicably, out of court. It had also referred the matter to the CJI for the constitution of a larger bench to hear Tripathi’s petition.

While Raveendran was against entertaining the petition, Gokhale had said: “If there is a one per cent chance (for settlement), you have to give it.” Raveendran had gone along with his colleague, as is the tradition in the case of a split verdict.

Tuesday’s hearing is important as Justice D.V. Sharma, one of three judges of the Lucknow Bench of the high court that is hearing the title suit, retires on October 1.