Justices Ashok Bhushan, SA Nazeer back on Ayodhya bench

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has rejigged the bench which will hear the Ayodhya title dispute by including Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer. The new bench will on Tuesday decide on beginning of the hearing date and prepare a schedule.

The bench CJI Gogoi formed earlier sparked off a controversy as Justices Bhushan and Nazeer, who along with then CJI Dipak Misra heard the Ayodhya case, were excluded.

The decision to reconstitute the bench comprising the CJI and his successors, Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, UU Lalit and Justice DY Chandrachud was taken after Justice UU Lalit recused himself from hearing the case. The reconstituted bench does not have Justice Ramana either. The CJI’s earlier decision was criticised mainly including judges who heard a case when a bench is reconstituted. Several Muslim bodies had slammed the composition of the bench, saying justice must not only be done but seen to be done. CJI Gogoi had also done away with predecessor Misra’s decision not to refer the case at the first instance to five judges and instead heard by three initially.


The CJI hinted at the sheer magnitude of the work ahead, when he said at the last hearing that 120 issues had been framed. “A total of 88 witnesses examined. The depositions of witnesses run into 13,886 pages. 257 documents were exhibited. The HC judgment runs into 4,304 pages. Original records were in 15 sealed trunks in a sealed room,” he said while assigning the case to a five-judge bench.