#RamMandir: SC pins the next case hearing on March 23; directs that only three parties to be in witness box

 New Delhi, March 14: The Supreme Court rejected all interim applications filed for permission to interfere in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute and the next hearing, in this case, will be on March 23.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer has also directed the registry not to entertain any intervention applications in the matter.

Though the Bench also dismissed the IA filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, it agreed to revive his writ petition seeking his fundamental right to pray at Ayodhya for posting before the appropriate Bench. The Counsel for the parties and ASG Tushar Mehta submitted that intervention by third parties in a civil suit shall not be allowed.

Nearly all lawyers associated with this case believe that all technical formalities have been completed. That is the time to begin a plea in the country's biggest trial.

In November last year, the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board had submitted before the Supreme Court a proposal for the settlement of the decades-old dispute, saying a temple can be built in Ayodhya and the mosque could be raised in Lucknow.

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

Senior Counsel Rajeev Dhawan said in SC that “On December 6, 1992, two illegalities took place. The constitutional bench only considered the question of religion. Why only Hindus have been given the right to pray. A mosque is not essential for Muslims; is that’s what is implied here? Muslims can pray anywhere is like saying you can go for toilet anywhere and this is highly unacceptable to me.

“Justice Verma in a judgment says that Muslims can pray anywhere. Mecca Medina and possibly the dome on the rocks is pious to the Muslims. Even Parliament wants the bench to decide on Ram Janmbhoomi. Do you accept that mosque is not equally important? Surely, I can rest my case." he added.

“The position of law must be clear. I think praying in the mosque is important. All the mosques, the temple should be acquired then. Because they all are backed up by the same law that they can be acquired.”

Now the whole nation’s eyes are on March 23 as to what will be the verdict of this decades-old dispute.