The Supreme Court has accepted the three-member mediation panel’s request to extend the time for mediation in the Ayodhya land dispute case until August 15. The SC has guided them to come up with an amicable and a final solution to the sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case in Ayodhya.
A five-judge Constitution bench comprising Chief justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer was assigned to take up the panel report on Friday.
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The mediation committee comprises of former SC judge FMI Kalifulla, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, a renowned mediator.
Earlier the mediators were assigned with commencing the mediation process and were required to submit a progress report within four weeks. At the end of eight weeks, the panel was to hold in-camera proceedings.
The Hindu bodies, except the Nirmohi Akhara and UP government, were showing opposition for the court’s suggestion for mediation, however, the Muslim bodies were supporting it.
The top court had asked for the mediation proceedings to be conducted with “utmost confidentiality” for ensuring its success. The top court had fixed the seat for mediation process in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh, around 7 km from Ayodhya, and said that the adequate arrangements including the venue of the mediation, place of stay of the mediators, their security, travel should be forthwith arranged by the state government so that proceedings could commence immediately.