SC declines hearing plea urgently to defer HC Ayodhya verdict

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today declined to hear urgently a plea to postpone the Ayodhya title suit verdict and barring any last-minute intervention it will be delivered by the Allahabad High Court as scheduled on Friday.

A bench of the court while refusing to hear the petition filed by retired bureacrat Ramesh Chand Tripathi earlier in the day on the ground it did not have the "determination" to said it will be listed before another Bench.

The bench comprising Justices Altmas Kabir and A K Patnaik however refused to list the petition for tomorrow saying it did not have the "jurisdiction" to fix the date for hearing after the counsel for the petitioner pressed for the same.

All eyes were on the apex Court on how the petition will be treated today with just two days left for the keenly awaited verdict on the 60-year-old Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.

"I have checked. We do not have determination to take up the matter which has arisen from a civil suit," the Bench said.

"Since I don't have the determination, it will go to the Bench which has the determination," Justice Kabir, who was heading the bench said.

When senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Tripathi, pleaded that the case be listed tomorrow, Justice Kabir said, "I can't direct it for listing. I don't have such jurisdiction."

Rohatgi further said the appeal will become infructous if the matter is not heard by the apex Court in view of the date fixed by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court to deliver the verdict on September 24.

Justice Kabir again said, "Sorry, I don't have the determination."

Rohatgi also submitted that he will have a difficulty in making a mention before the Chief Justice S H Kapadia tomorrow for taking up the petition urgently as he will be heading a Constitution bench.

Tripathi approached the Apex court five days after the High Court's Ayodhya bench rejected his petition for deferring the verdict and to allow mediation to find a solution to the contentious dispute.

The bench decided this morning to to take up the petition at 2 PM after Tripathi's counsel said it required urgent consideration.