SC decision on Ayodhya verdict at 2 pm today

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will announce its verdict on a petition seeking deferment of the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit dispute at 2 PM on Tuesday. A three-judge special bench comprising of Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice KS Radhakrishnan has completed hearing the arguments by different parties on the petition moved by Ramesh Chandra Tripathi to postpone the verdict in the case so that efforts could made to reach an out-of-court settlement.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi started the argument on behalf of Tripathi while former attorney general Soli Sorabjee appeared for Sunni Wakf Board. For the first the time the Centre made its stand clear and told the apex court that the uncertainty surrounding the verdict must end.

Attorney General GE Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, told the court that the most preferred solution to the problem would be settlement but it has not taken place and the uncertainty which is prevailing should not be allowed to continue.

"The most preferred way of resolution is settlement. The Government wants that uncertainty should not continue. We cannot keep law and order situation in suspension. We want resolution of the matter in one way or the other," said Vahanvati.

Vahanvati said that Central Government had no role in the extension of service of a High Court judge while reacting to Tripathi counsel's argument that the term of Allahabad High Court judge Justice Dharam Veer Sharma, who is to retire on October 1, be extended or he can retire and his judgement be kept in a sealed envelop and pronounced by his successor.

The Supreme Court had on September 23 issued an interim stay order on the title suit case verdict that was to be pronounced by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court and posted the matter for further hearing on September 28.

Before filing his petition in the Supreme Court, Tripathi had moved the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court for deferment of the verdict. But his petition was turned down by the three-judge special bench of the High Court comprising of Justice SU Khan, Justice Sudhir Agrawal and Justice Dharam Veer Sharma.

The High Court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Tripathi.

The Sunni Wakf Board had on Monday claimed that the Ayodhya dispute cannot be sorted out through talks between the disputing parties while moving a petition in the Supreme Court.

The verdict in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit dispute would decide whether the 2.77 acres of disputed land on which Babri Masjid stood before it was demolished on December 6, 1992, belongs to Sunni Central Wakf Board or to the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.

What each party wants:

Sunni Wakf Board: Opposed to deferment.

Nirmohi Akhara: Want deferment by three months to try to reach an out-of-court settlement.

Hindu Mahasabha: Opposed to deferment.

Gopal Visharad: Opposed to deferment.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram reviewed the security situation in Ayodhya and meeting top officials from his ministry and security agencies in New Delhi on Tuesday.

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