In a significant development in the Ayodhya case, the Supreme Court today urged the parties to once again explore the possibility of mediation to settle the dispute..Read the hearing as it happened before the Supreme Court.The idea was suggested by Justice SA Bobde during the hearing today..“After all these years and all that happened, do you think it is about property?.Even if there is one percent chance for mediation, we should give it an opportunity”, Bobde J. said..He also suggested that mediation would be a confidential process and will happen concurrently to the case in Court..The lawyers for different parties took different views of the suggestion..Senior Advocates CS Vaidyanathan and Ranjit Kumar appearing for Ram Lalla and other Hindu parties opposed it outright..“It has been tried not once, but several times”, submitted Vaidyanathan..“Mediation is not possible, not agreeable. Your Lordships may decide the dispute as early as possible”, submitted Ranjit Kumar..Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the Muslim parties, however, submitted,. “I wont oppose it if Your Lordships want to try it.”.Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Sunni Wakf Board, submitted that the “lack of progress in mediation may weigh on us”..The Court, after considering the submissions of the parties, said that it will defer passing any orders on the issue of reference to mediation till the next date of hearing, which is March 5..The other important issue discussed today was whether the parties were in agreement regarding the correctness of translated versions of all documents and depositions..“Once we have an agreement on the correctness of translated documents, we can proceed. Once we start the hearing, we don’t want the parties disputing the correctness of translation of documents and delaying the hearing”, said CJI Ranjan Gogoi..Rajeev Dhavan told the Court that his client had not examined the translated documents of the State of Uttar Pradesh, and sought time for the same..Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan objected to it. He pointed out earlier orders of the Supreme Court as far back as December 2017, suggesting that translation of documents had been completed. In that order, the Court had also expressed hope that the parties would be prepared to argue the case and not seek adjournment..“That was in 2017. We are now in 2019”, he said..Dhavan, however, submitted that after directions were issued by the Court for translation, the case went on a different track regarding reference of the matter to a larger Bench. That was the reason they could not examine the translated documents of the State of Uttar Pradesh..The Court remarked that it will not waste its time till the parties are in agreement over the correctness of translated documents..It then ordered that eight more weeks will be allowed to the parties to examine the translated documents and raise any objections regarding the same..Subsequently, Subramanian Swamy made brief submissions in his writ petition seeking the right to pray at the disputed site..He said that whatever be the compromise, a minimum condition has to be included to give Hindus the right to pray at the site where Lord Ram was born..The Court will now take up the case on March 5..Read live updates of today’s Ayodhya case hearing here..Want to understand about the Ayodhya Dispute. Here is a 5-minute video
In a significant development in the Ayodhya case, the Supreme Court today urged the parties to once again explore the possibility of mediation to settle the dispute..Read the hearing as it happened before the Supreme Court.The idea was suggested by Justice SA Bobde during the hearing today..“After all these years and all that happened, do you think it is about property?.Even if there is one percent chance for mediation, we should give it an opportunity”, Bobde J. said..He also suggested that mediation would be a confidential process and will happen concurrently to the case in Court..The lawyers for different parties took different views of the suggestion..Senior Advocates CS Vaidyanathan and Ranjit Kumar appearing for Ram Lalla and other Hindu parties opposed it outright..“It has been tried not once, but several times”, submitted Vaidyanathan..“Mediation is not possible, not agreeable. Your Lordships may decide the dispute as early as possible”, submitted Ranjit Kumar..Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the Muslim parties, however, submitted,. “I wont oppose it if Your Lordships want to try it.”.Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Sunni Wakf Board, submitted that the “lack of progress in mediation may weigh on us”..The Court, after considering the submissions of the parties, said that it will defer passing any orders on the issue of reference to mediation till the next date of hearing, which is March 5..The other important issue discussed today was whether the parties were in agreement regarding the correctness of translated versions of all documents and depositions..“Once we have an agreement on the correctness of translated documents, we can proceed. Once we start the hearing, we don’t want the parties disputing the correctness of translation of documents and delaying the hearing”, said CJI Ranjan Gogoi..Rajeev Dhavan told the Court that his client had not examined the translated documents of the State of Uttar Pradesh, and sought time for the same..Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan objected to it. He pointed out earlier orders of the Supreme Court as far back as December 2017, suggesting that translation of documents had been completed. In that order, the Court had also expressed hope that the parties would be prepared to argue the case and not seek adjournment..“That was in 2017. We are now in 2019”, he said..Dhavan, however, submitted that after directions were issued by the Court for translation, the case went on a different track regarding reference of the matter to a larger Bench. That was the reason they could not examine the translated documents of the State of Uttar Pradesh..The Court remarked that it will not waste its time till the parties are in agreement over the correctness of translated documents..It then ordered that eight more weeks will be allowed to the parties to examine the translated documents and raise any objections regarding the same..Subsequently, Subramanian Swamy made brief submissions in his writ petition seeking the right to pray at the disputed site..He said that whatever be the compromise, a minimum condition has to be included to give Hindus the right to pray at the site where Lord Ram was born..The Court will now take up the case on March 5..Read live updates of today’s Ayodhya case hearing here..Want to understand about the Ayodhya Dispute. Here is a 5-minute video
