As a larger Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia is set for Tuesday’s crucial hearing on whether to further defer the Allahabad high court judgment on the Ayodhya title suit, the UP Sunni Waqf Board, the main party representing Muslims, has in a petition to the Supreme Court sought immediate pronouncement, saying there was no chance of negotiations leading to a reconciliation.
“There is no chance of the dispute being resolved through mediation, conciliation and arbitration,” said its 12-page affidavit urging the nation’s highest court to lift its stay and allow the high court to pronounce its verdict. The three-judge bench, which besides the Chief Justice also includes Justices Aftab Alam and K.S. Radhakrishnan, will decide whether to defer the ruling further to give a last chance to the parties for negotiations, or allow its pronouncement prior to the retirement of one of the three high court judges.
If the verdict is deferred, the Supreme Court’s primary concern might be how to deal with the question of the high court judge’s retirement as this might otherwise bring the entire exercise to nought.