A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia will hear the petition seeking to defer the verdict on the Ayodhya title suits on September 28,after a week of suspense which saw two different Benches headed by his senior-most judges unable to decide the issue. The case is listed as the first item to come up for hearing before the Bench,also comprising Justices Aftab Alam and K S Radhakrishnan,at 10.30 am. On Thursday,just 24 hours before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court was slated to pronounce its judgment in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suits,the SC stayed it. It is now left to the CJI's Bench to decide whether the judgment should be given before October 1,when Justice D V Sharma,one of the judges in the Lucknow Bench,is going to retire. The plea to defer the verdict and allow mediation among the contesting parties,filed by retired bureaucrat Ramesh Chandra Tripathi,came up for hearing on September 22 before a Bench headed by Justice Altmas Kabir,the second senior most judge of the SC. Speaking for the Bench,Justice Kabir said he was not authorised to hear disputes arising from civil suits. When requested to forward it to a suitable Bench,the judge said he did not have the determination to allocate another court. He said it was in the Chief Justices hands to allot a court for the case. The next day,the matter was scheduled for hearing before a Bench led by Justice R V Raveendran the third senior most judge of the SC. But the hearing reached a stalemate when the judges Justice Raveendran and Justice H L Gokhale expressed divergent views. Justice Raveendran was of the opinion that the people of the country are not so immature as to not accept a judgment while Justice Gokhale called for another chance for settlement. The tradition of the court won,and Justice Raveendran stayed the pronouncement of verdict for a reconciliation exercise. The case was posted for September 28. But just as the hearing was to be concluded,a lawyer asked the Bench its future course if they differed again on September 28. Justice Raveendran then decided to refer the case to the Chief Justice for the constitution of a larger Bench.
