Ayodhya dispute: Supreme Court fixes next hearing on 8 February

The Supreme Court on 5 December fixed the next hearing for the long-standing Ayodhya dispute matter on 8 February 2018.

The Supreme Court commenced the hearings in the Ayodhya dispute on 5 December morning.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing the Sunni Waqf Board, read out in the apex court the details of exhibits filed by the contesting defendants before the Allahabad High Court.

Sibal told the three-judge bench of the court that all the exhibits were not filed before this court.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, representing the state of Uttar Pradesh rebutted the averments of Kapil Sibal. The ASG also told the Supreme Court that all the related documents and requisite translation copies were on record.

Sibal raised the doubts over the assertions of ASG Mehta and told the Supreme Court that "he and other petitioners have not been served relevant documents of pleadings."

Kapil Sibal told the top court that whenever this matter is heard, there are serious repercussions outside the court and to preserve the decorum of law and order, and that he personally requests court to take this matter up on July 15, 2019, once all the pleadings are complete.

Petitioners are pleaded in the Supreme Court for reasonable time to translate, file and serve the copies of all the exhibits and relevant documents, which were filed before the Allahabad High Court bench at Lucknow.

The first hearing was set a day before the 25th anniversary of the demolition of medieval-era mosque, Babri Masjid.

According to reports, the top court was hearing a total of 13 appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in four civil suits.

The stakeholders in the case had moved the apex court after the Allahabad HC directed the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Lord Ram Lalla to settle for a three-way division of the disputed site.

The Babri Masjid was built by Mughal emperor Babur in Ayodhya in 1528.

The Hindus, however, claim that a Ram temple that originally stood there was demolished to construct the mosque. Citing this, Hindu zealots demolished the mosque on 6 December 1992, triggering communal riots in various parts of the country.

Meanwhile, today, a Delhi court will deliver its verdict in connection with the terrorist attack on the makeshift Ram Temple in Ayodhya in 2005. 

-ANI