A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on the issue of referring Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case to the court appointed and monitored mediation to come out with a "permanent solution."
Hindu Mahasabha, ahead of the hearing today, said it was not ready for the mediation in the matter, terming it a futile process, which in the past also did not elicit any favorable outcome.
As the court proceedings began, one of the lawyers opposed the mediation process saying that even if the parties agreed to resolve the matter amicably, the public would not agree to a compromise, to which Justice SA Bobde said that mediation didn't mean necessarily compromise by one party and a win for the other.
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The judge also stated, "We cannot undo Babar invading etc. We can only look into the current situation." "We understand the gravity of the case. Past cannot be undone. We can only decide what happens in the present," he added.
Hearing the matter last on February 26, the five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had advocated an amicable resolution to the Ram Mandir case through mediation.
The apex court in its observation favoured peaceful dialogue to solve the contentious issue. Justice Bobde proposed the suggestion while hearing the case. "We are considering the possibility of healing relations between two communities." Justice SA Bobde said.
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The five-judge constitution bench comprises Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer.
While the lawyers of the Hindu parties opposed to the idea of mediation saying such attempts had failed in the past, the Muslim parties' lawyers were up for the negotiations if a regular hearing on the matter went on simultaneously.
The petition challenging the 2010 judgment by the Allahabad High Court has been pending for almost nine years. The court had ordered to equally divide the 2.77 acres of the disputed land in Ayodhya.