Mediation in Ayodhya not working: Plaintiff to Supreme Court

New Delhi: There has been no progress in the mediations to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, a plaintiff in the case has complained to the Supreme Court while urging it to hear the title suit urgently.

“There has been no progress in the negotiations,” the plaintiff ’s counsel, senior advocate PS Narasimha, claimed before a threejudge bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday.

The plaintiff, Gopal Singh Visharad, is one of the original petitioners in the civil suit filed over the Ayodhya land. He wants an immediate hearing of the appeals against the Allahabad High Court order of 2010, which have been pending in the Supreme Court since then. The bench — also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose — did not commit to a date but said it would look at the demand.


The SC had in March referred the politically sensitive case for mediation by a three-member panel led by retired SC judge FMI Kalifullah with spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu being the other members. In May, a five-judge bench granted the panel’s request for an extension of time till August 15 to find a solution acceptable to both the warring parties. The Allahabad High Court had carved up the land on which the Babri Masjid once stood in the ratio of 2:1 between Hindu and Muslim parties.

Both sides were unhappy with the ruling and had filed cross appeals in the case, seeking exclusive ownership of the land measuring around 0.67 acre.