Justice S A Bobde unavailable, Supreme Court defers Ayodhya case hearing

The Supreme Court today further delayed the hearing of Ram Janmbhoomi case, stating that the matter won’t be taken up on January 29 due to the non-availability of Justice S A Bobde. The case relating to the over century old litigation has been pending in the SC since 2011.

A new 5-judge Constitution Bench was constituted by the Supreme Court Friday to hear on January 29 the politically sensitive Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute in Ayodhya.

The new bench comprises of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer. When the new bench was constituted, Justice N V Ramana was also excluded from the re-constitution bench.


Last year, Justices Bhushan and Nazeer were part of the bench with then CJI Misra but could not start hearing the main Ayodhya petition as it had to first rule on a plea by Dhavan to refer the Supreme Court’s 1994 ruling in the M Ismail Faruqui and Others vs Union of India case to a Constitution Bench.

On September 27 last year, the bench, in a 2-1 verdict, rejected Dhavan’s plea. While CJI Misra and Justice Bhushan rejected the demand, Justice Nazeer dissented.