New Delhi, Sept 23 (IANS): The Supreme Court today deferred till September 28 its ruling on the pronouncement of the Ayodhya verdict by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.
The court also issued notice to all the parties to the title suit and asked Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati to be present in the court when the case is heard five days later.
The ruling followed a petition by retired bureaucrat Ramesh Chandra Tripathi seeking postponement of the high court verdict at least until the end of the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games. It sought the court's direction to the parties to explore possibilities of an out of court amicable settlement.
There was a divergence of views in the apex court bench of Justices R.V. Ravindran and HL Gokhale. According to the bench, while one member felt that the special leave petition be dismissed, another was of the view that notice be issued and the order stayed.
Under the convention, when one member of the bench favours the issuance of notice though the other member of the bench disagrees, notices are issued. Stating this, Justice Ravindran passed the order staying the pronouncement of the Ayodhya verdict by a week and issue of notice to all parties to the suit.
Tripathi's petition was turned down by the three-judge special bench of the Allahabad High Court last week. While two judges S.U. Khan and Sudhir Agrawal rejected the application, the third judge, Dharam Veer Sharma, allowed the plea, following which Tripathi chose to move the apex court.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court was due to deliver its verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi dispute Sep 24.
