The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the Constitution bench hearing the Ayodhya case will sit on February 26 at 10.30 am. The matter, which was earlier scheduled to be heard on January 29, was adjourned as Justice SA Bobde of the five-member bench was not available.
In January, the Supreme Court had reconstituted a bench that was supposed to hear the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute. An earlier hearing on January 10 was adjourned after Justice UU Lalit recused himself from the matter.
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said the new bench would comprise Justices Ashok Bhushan, Abdul Nazeer, SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud and himself. The earlier five-judge Constitution bench had included Gogoi, Bobde, Chandrachud, NV Ramana and UU Lalit.
The Supreme Court had in October rejected the Uttar Pradesh government’s appeal for an early hearing in the case. As many as 14 separate petitions have been filed against the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict ordering a three-way division of the land on which the Babri Masjid stood. The land was divided equally between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Sunni Wakf Board and the representative for the deity Ram Lalla in the 2010 judgement.
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