This order has heightened suspense as a new 'appropriate bench' could be constituted to hear the matter
After a gap of two months, the Supreme Court was supposed to begin the hearing on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit dispute case but it did not. Sitting with Justice SK Kaul, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi passed a crisp one-line order posting the matter to January 10.
No sooner the matter came up than the bench without hearing anybody, directed: "Further orders in the matter will be passed on January 10 by the appropriate Bench, as may be constituted."
This order has heightened suspense as a new 'appropriate bench' could be constituted to hear the matter. The politically-charged title suit case has been pending in the SC since 2011. The appeals followed a September 2010 judgment by the Allahabad High Court which by a 2:1 decision held that the 2.77 acre land under dispute be partitioned equally between the Sunni Central Waqf Board, the Ram Lalla and the Nirmohi Akhara. Going by the past orders, the matter was last heard by a three-judge bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph on October 29, 2018. On that day it was ordered, "List the matters in the first week of January 2019 for fixing a date of hearing before the appropriate Bench."
It was meant that the bench which took up the case on Friday was the appropriate bench. However, Friday's order has created doubts on whether CJI will continue on the bench.
Assigning matters to a bench is the prerogative of the CJI, who is the master of the roster. Exercising this power in the past, the Ayodhya title suit case has been heard by different judges sitting in combination of two or three.
The first hearing of the case was held on May 9, 2011 by a two-judge bench. This position remained unaltered till August 10, 2015 when the matter was first heard by a three-judge bench of Justices TS Thakur, V Gopala Gowda and R Banumathi. The matter again reverted back to a two-judge bench from the next hearing onwards on October 16, 2015 till the matter went again to a three-judge bench on August 11, 2017.
This position continued till the three-judge bench on September 27, 2018 passed orders directing that the matter will not go before a Constitution bench.
In this backdrop, one can only imagine whether CJI will constitute a two-judge bench or three-judge bench and if he would choose to be part of the bench or constitute a fresh bench altogether.
Al eyes are on the SC as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a recent interview said that the Government will await the judicial process on Ayodhya to first get over and then act on the issue.
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