The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal of the Gyanvapi management committee against an Allahabad High Court order which held that lawsuits for "restoration" of a temple where the mosque stands in Varanasi are maintainable.
In a relief to the Hindu side, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Allahabad high court order allowing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific survey at the Gyanvapi mosque complex to determine if the 17th-century structure was built upon a pre-existing temple.
In a late Monday evening surprise development, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court called upon rival parties in the much-debated Ayodhya case to explore possibilities of a last-minute amicable settlement on the vexed issue.
With barely a day left for the verdict on the Ayodhya title suits to be pronounced by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, security has been stepped up further at important installations across the state.
The appeal was mentioned before a vacation Bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, which fixed June nine as the date for hearing the matter. The Bench allowed senior advocate P R Andhyrujina, who mentioned the matter, to file a special leave petition against the High Court order later in the day.
The Kshatriya Mahasabha had sought to be made a party to the Ayodhya title case.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Thursday revoked the disqualification of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Afzal Ansari as a member of the Lower House after the Supreme Court conditionally suspended his conviction in a Gangsters Act case.
The bench took serious note of the submission of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the parties, that the appeals be heard in July 2019 after completion of the next Lok Sabha polls as the atmosphere at present was not conducive.
The apex court rejected an appeal challenging a July 10 decision of the Allahabad high court which had also dismissed the plea finding no error or illegality in the order of a Mathura civil judge who had decided to first hear the issue of maintainability of the suit as raised by management committee of the mosque.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the appeal filed by Mathew Samuel and others challenging an order of the Allahabad high court which refused to quash the proceedings in the FIR filed against them by the state police.
Media, both print and electronic, would be kept away from the high court compound in Lucknow on the day of pronouncement of the verdict on the Ayodhya title suits on September 24 and photocopies of the judgement would be made available at the district collectorate.
The special bench comprising Justice Sudhir Narain, Justice Rafat Alam and Justice Bhanwar Singh held ASI's application for extension of time as premature.
The Allahabad high court on Monday deferred till October 31 the hearing of an appeal challenging the acquittal of all 32 accused, including former deputy prime minister LK Advani and the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, in the Babri mosque demolition case.
Even as the nation awaits -- with bated breath -- September 24, when the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid verdict is to be delivered by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, a section of people who have been diligently following the issue are apprehensive about a further delay
The top court said the extension of tenure of the special judge will only be for the purpose of concluding the trial and delivering the verdict in the case.
Mishra said that the court has fixed July 7 for the next hearing.
The high court erred in holding that the law was violative of the principle of secularism, said a bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The Lokpal was functioning without its regular chief since Pinaki Chandra Ghose completed his term on May 27, 2022.
While Justice Kant and Bhuyan delivered the majority verdict, Justice Datta dismissed Ansari's appeal against the Allahabad high court order.
A Special Bench comprising Justice S R Alam, Justice Bhanwar Singh and Justice O P Srivastava, while passing the order, directed the concerned officials to lend all possible assistance to the ASI in the work.
"The court appears to have somehow got guided by considerations of faith and belief instead of the rule of the law book," Mulayam told media persons in Lucknow.
A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana is likely to pronounce its verdict at 10:30 am on Monday.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who has been part of several landmark Supreme Court judgements such as scrapping the electoral bonds scheme and upholding abrogation of Article 370, will be sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India on Monday.
The Supreme Court will now take the final call on the question of postponing the long awaited verdict beyond its scheduled date of September 24. Seventy-three year old Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, who was one of the parties to the 59year old court battle, is all set to move the apex court on Tuesday against Friday's order by the two judges of the three-judge special bench of Allahabad High Court.
While that created a stir so did the decision on his penultimate day at work with the Supreme Court rechristening its summer vacation "partial court working days", an issue that has led to criticism that the apex court judges enjoyed long breaks.
The Supreme Court refused to stay Allahabad high court's December 14 order which allowed the primary survey of the Shahi Idgah complex adjacent to the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura by a court-monitored three-member team of advocate commissioners.
"Was this the place of birth of Lord Ram? Was the Babri mosque built after demolition of temple? And whether the mosque in question was built in accordance with the tenets of Islam?"
"We are not ready to part with any bit of land in or around the disputed Ayodhya site, where we wish to erect a grand temple to mark the birthplace of Lord Ram", VHP supremo Ashok Singhal told a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday afternoon.
A lot is being said about the verdict delivered by the special bench of the Allahabad high court in the Ayodhya case. We compile some of the comments made by political and social figures.
Soon after the CCS meeting, Dr Singh is likely to make an appeal for peace and harmony. There are also plans to have a national broadcast by the prime minister if the situation so warranted.
A day before the Special Bench of the Allahabad High Court meets to make a last ditch effort to find an amicable solution to the Ayodhya case, leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad held a marathon meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the issue.
As the country's largest opposition political party with strong roots among the majority community, the BJP has a special stake in ensuring communal peace and harmony.
"How can the judge go into postmortem report etc. We are hearing a bail matter, we do not want to prolong.This way of going into merits and going into wounds etc. is unnecessary for the question of bail," the bench observed.
The three-judge special bench of the Allahabad high court, comprising Justice S U Khan, Sudhir Agarwal and D V Sharma, on Thursday delivered the verdict into the Ayodhya title suit.
The Uttar Pradesh government has urged the Union Home ministry to provide 400 companies of central paramilitary forces in order to tackle the fallout of the much-awaited verdict in the Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit.
While Hindus claimed the land to be the site of the birthplace of their most revered Lord Ram, Muslims asserted their right over the same as the site of a 16th century mosque claimed to have been built by the first Mughal emperor Babur in the ancient town of Ayodhya, about 120 km from Lucknow.
District Judge A K Vishvesh ordered that it would continue to hear the petition seeking the right to worship in the temple.
An application has been filed by advocates Shiv Kumar Tripathi and CS Panda in the suo motu case registered on a letter petition sought setting aside of the order dated February 10 of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta stayed the implementation of the December 14, 2023, order by which it had agreed to the appointment of a court commissioner to oversee the survey of the mosque premises which, the Hindu side claims, hold signs suggesting that it was a temple once. However, the apex court made it clear that proceedings before the high court in the dispute including the maintainability of the suit under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) will continue.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances