A batch of petitions seeking review of the November 9 Ayodhya land dispute verdict, which cleared the way for construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site, will be considered in-chamber by the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The in-chamber proceeding will be taken up by a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S A Nazeer and Sanjeev Khanna.
Justice Khanna is the only judge who was not a part of the five-judge Constitution bench that had delivered the historic verdict.
He replaces the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who has retired.
A five-judge bench, headed by the then CJI Gogoi, had in a unanimous verdict on November 9 decreed the entire 2.77 acre disputed land in favour of deity 'Ram Lalla' and also directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque in Ayodhya.
As per the list of business uploaded on the apex court's website, the bench would consider 18 review petitions in-chamber, out of which nine have been filed by parties who were part of the earlier litigation and the other nine have been filed by 'third parties'.
On December 2, the first plea seeking review of Ayodhya verdict was filed in the apex court by Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi, legal heir of original litigant M Siddiq and also the Uttar Pradesh president of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind.
On December 6, six petitions were filed in the apex court seeking review of its November 9 judgment.
On December 9, two more review petitions were filed, one by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and the other by 40 persons, including rights activists who have jointly moved the court seeking review of its verdict.
Nirmohi Akhara, which was the key Hindu litigant in the case, on Wednesday, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of the order.
"Nirmohi Akhara has filed a review petition today (on Wednesday) before the Supreme Court challenging the Court's November 9 verdict in Ayodhya land dispute case," said Spokesperson of Nirmohi Akhara, Kartik Chopra.
Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi has sought review of the verdict on 14 counts and said that 'complete justice' could only be done by directing reconstruction of Babri Masjid.
He has also sought an interim stay on operation of the verdict in which it had directed the Centre that a trust be formed within three months for construction of the temple at the site.
Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, which has sought a limited review of the November 9 verdict, has moved the court against the direction to allot a five-acre plot to Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque in Ayodhya.
It has also sought deletion of findings declaring the disputed structure as a Mosque.
The review plea filed by 40 persons, including historian Irfan Habib, economist and political commentator Prabhat Patnaik, activists Harsh Mander, Nandini Sundar and John Dayal, have said they are 'deeply aggrieved' by the verdict as it 'errs in both fact and law'.
It has sought a full bench for hearing the review plea saying it is not merely a title dispute but a 'contestation about the core of India's constitutional morality, and the principles of equal citizenship, secularism, justice, rule of law and fraternity'.
With inputs from ANI
