Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case to be heard in SC on April 6

NEW DELHI: The Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case will be heard in Supreme Court on April 6, the court said while hearing the final arguments in the case on Friday. The court is hearing 13 appeals filed against the 2010 judgment of the Allahabad High Court in four civil suits. The petitions challenge the high court verdict that mandated a three-way division of the disputed site in Ayodhya.

The court had on March 14 dismissed all 32 intervention petitions, including applications of Shyam Benegal, Aparna Sen and Teesta Setalvad, in the dispute case. The top court had then said that pleas of only original parties to the Babri Masjid-Ram temple title dispute will be heard while interventions of unrelated people will be rejected.

It had also rejected a plea of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy, seeking to intervene in the case. However, the court ordered the revival of Swamy's disposed plea that had sought enforcement of his fundamental right to worship at Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

A special bench of the top court headed by CJI Misra had earlier asked both the parties before the Allahabad High Court to file the English translation of documents exhibited by them. The apex court had also directed its registry to provide copies of video cassettes, which were part of HC records, to parties on actual cost. The bench said that it would hear the appeals on March 14, 2018, and clarified that it never intended to hear the case on a "day-to-day basis".

The bench had also added that it would deal with the instant matter as a "pure land dispute". The special bench of the apex court is seized of a total 14 appeals filed against the high court judgement delivered in four civil suits.

A three-judge bench of the Allahabad HC, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties - the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.