Ayodhya hearing from August 2: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would commence regular hearing of the Ayodhya title suit from August 2 but only after it has received a final report from the Ayodhya mediation panel by July 31, in the first hint possibly of the mediation process not going off too well.

“We now fix the hearing of the cases on and from August 2,” a bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said, taking note of a status report on Thursday filed by the Justice FMI Kalifulla Committee on the progress in the negotiations so far.

The bench, however, allowed the mediation process in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case to continue for the time being. It said that it will await a final report from the committee by July 31 before deciding whether to hold daily hearings.


The court did not make public the results of the mediation so far, except only to record that it was listing the case for final hearing, taking note of the report of the committee. The bench said it will take a call on whether to persist with the mediation beyond July 31, or end it after receiving the final report and move on to hearing the appeals pending in the top court since 2010 in the case.

The mediation panel, which includes spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, has been engaging with both sides for over months now.

The bench comprises Justice SA Bobde, next in line to be CJI, and justices DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer. Any hearing will take months and will most possibly spill over to Justice Bobde’s tenure in office.