Supreme Court refuses early hearing to Swamy's plea for facilities at Ayodhya

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to give an early hearing to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking facilities for the devotees visiting the disputed site in Ayodhya.

"You (Swamy) are just an intervener and your plea will be heard along with that of other aggrieved parties," a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.

Swamy mentioned the matter before the bench, also comprising Justice U U Lalit, and said that devotees who are visiting the disputed site are not getting basic amenities like drinking water, toilets etc.

Earlier, the apex court had asked Swamy to mention the matter before the Chief Justice of India for an urgent hearing.

The apex court had last year asked the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to consider providing better amenities feasible in the present scenario to pilgrims at 'Ram Janma Bhoomi' site.

"Let us do something. If possible, do something for the upkeep of the place and provide facilities for visitors," it had said.

Prior to this, it had asked the centre to file its response to the application filed by Swamy seeking facilities for the pilgrims.

Swamy had submitted in his plea that pilgrims, who are devotees of Lord Rama, are deprived of even basic facilities like drinking water and toilets and face difficulty due to inadequate arrangements made by both the centre and the UP government.

Swamy had said the status quo order passed by the apex court in 1996 was limited to prohibit building of any structure at the disputed site.

In his application, he had sought an order from the apex court to "ameliorate the lot of millions of Hindu pilgrims who make the pilgrimage to the site of the 'Ram Janma Bhoomi' at Ayodhya, to have a 'darshan' and perform 'pooja'."