I Knew Ayodhya mediation committee wouldn't provide a solution: Yogi

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said he was sure of the fact that the mediation panel, which was constituted to resolve the long-pending Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, would fail to arrive on a conclusion.

However, the Chief Minister praised the attempts made by a three-member mediation panel to resolve the matter.

Referring to an example from Hindu mythology Mahabharata, Adityanath said, "Supreme Court had constituted a three-member team for mediation (Ayodhya land dispute), it was unsuccessful, we knew already mediation would lead to nothing but attempts for mediation are good. The mediation attempts were made before Mahabharat too, but their result was unfruitful."

 

The Supreme Court yesterday observed that the mediation panel on Ayodhya matter has failed to achieve any final settlement in the matter and decided to hold day-to-day hearing in the case from August 6.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who was heading a Constitution bench, said, "We have received the mediation report. The mediation panel has not been able to achieve any final settlement. The hearing of the case will be on a day-to-day basis, hearing begin from August 6."

A senior lawyer appearing for one of the Muslim parties, Rajeev Dhavan, submitted to the Supreme Court that he will take 20 days to argue his case. To which, the CJI said, "We will see about it."

A Constitution bench, headed by Justice Gogoi, had on July 18 asked the three-member committee, headed by retired apex court judge FMI Kalifulla, to continue with the mediation process and submit a report on the progress made till July 31. The panel also comprised Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior Madras High Court advocate Sriram Panchu.

The bench also comprising S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, took up a batch of petitions seeking an end to the mediation process and the start of hearing in the Ayodhya title suit.

On July 11, K Parasaran, the senior lawyer for Singh, had argued that the mediation process is unlikely to yield any positive result.

However, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan had contested the stand taken by Parasaran for bringing the mediation process to end.

After perusing a report of the panel, the bench had said if it came to a conclusion that an amicable solution through mediation was not possible, then the court would commence day-to-day hearing in the matter.

Fourteen appeals are pending before the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict which ordered equal division of the 2.77-acre disputed land in Ayodhya among the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

The 16th-century Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992.