Day 20 Arguments
Ayodhya Title DisputeJuly 18th 2019
Today, the court perused the interim report by the Justice Kalifulla mediation panel and decided to allow mediation proceedings to continue until July 31st. It directed the mediation panel to submit a complete status report of the progress of mediation proceedings. It will pass orders in response to the complete report on August 2nd.
In the previous hearing on July 11th, The court heard an interlocutory application moving it to conclude mediation proceedings and commence regular court hearings. In response, it directed the Justice Kalifulla mediation panel to submit a progress report on the mediation proceedings by today, July 18th.
This case is an appeal against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment which partitioned the disputed Ayodhya land equally among the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. On 8 March the court ordered the parties to attempt resolving the dispute via mediation. A three member mediation panel comprising retired Justice FM Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Senior Advocate Sriram Panchu was set up. The panel was originally given time until August 15th 2019 to conduct mediation proceedings.
Neither today’s report nor the July 31st report will be place on the public record, in adherence with the court’s March 8th order that directed the mediation proceedings to remain confidential.
Today, the court also took on record a new interim application. The interim application seeks the court’s permission to point out discrepancies in the evidence.
The next hearing is on August 2nd, where the court will consider the mediation panel’s complete report and decide whether mediation proceedings should be concluded to subsequently begin regular hearings in open court.