Wakfs Board calls for vacating stay on delivery of verdict

The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday the Ayodhya dispute case, in which by an interim order on September 23, the Allahabad High Court had been restrained from pronouncing the verdict in the four title suits.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and K.S. Radhakrishnan will hear petitioner Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, who wanted a negotiated settlement; the Sunni Central Board of Wakfs, Uttar Pradesh; the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board; Baba Dharamdas; Mohd. Hashim; and the All-India Hindu Maha Sabha pleading for vacating the stay and allowing the High Court to pronounce the verdict.

The Bench will also hear Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati for the Centre, and other defendants in the connected suits.

Since Justice D.V. Sharma, one of the three judges on the Special Bench of the Allahabad High Court that had reserved the verdict in the title suits, is to retire on October 1, the Supreme Court will have to take a decision on Tuesday whether to extend the interim stay or not.

Mr. Tripathi was aggrieved at the Allahabad High Court order of September 17 refusing to defer the judgment to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement through negotiations between the parties to the dispute. On September 23, while staying the pronouncement of the verdict, the Supreme Court had issued notice to the parties and posted the matter for further hearing on September 28.

In its response, the Wakfs Board said: “The facts which unambiguously establish that a dispute of this nature and background cannot be resolved through mediation/reconciliation/arbitration. With the culmination of 60 years of continuous court proceedings and when judgment was reserved to be pronounced on September 24, an attempt at the last moment was made to put the clock back and to frustrate the entire efforts made by the parties and the court to decide the dispute once and for all.”