New Delhi, July 11: Viewing to speed up an early hearing in the Ayodhya land dispute case, the Supreme Court on Thursday sought a progress report from the mediation panel by July 18, further adding that in case if the mediation fails or is found unfeasible, it will begin hearing from July 25.
"We have set up a mediation panel. We will have to wait for a report. Let the mediators to submit a report on this”, said the court asking the panel to submit a detailed report by July 25.
Gopal Singh Visharad had filed an application for the early hearing of the case. Visharad, who is one of the original plaintiffs in the case, said no progress had been made in the mediation ordered by the Supreme Court to settle the issue.
Meanwhile, K Parasaran, senior lawyer for applicant while seeking a date for early hearing in the case said that since mediation was unlikely to bring any positive results, the court should have given a date for an ultimate hearing.
The Supreme Court in March had constituted a three-member committee chaired by former SC judge Fakkir Mohammed Ibrahim Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior Madras High Court advocate Sriram Panchu.
The bench, while agreeing to look into the matter, had asked Visharad to file a necessary application to this effect. On May 10, the court had given a deadline of August 15 to the mediation panel to find a reasonable solution to the dispute. The plea has been filed by Rajendra Singh, son of Gopal Singh Visharad, one of the plaintiffs in the original civil suit regarding the Ayodhya land.