The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Ayodhya mediation panel to continue talks to develop consensus between Hindu and Muslim parties on the temple dispute and asked it to continue the court-monitored process till July 31 as that would apparently enable it to pass further orders.
The report will be submitted to the apex court on August 1.If required, the court will tentatively set August 2 for the hearing ofappeals.
“We request the panel to inform the court the outcomeof the mediation proceedings as on July 31 by August 1 to enable us to proceedfurther in the matter in terms of the present directions,” the Bench saidin its order.
The court said it had received a report of the three-membermediation panel, headed by former apex court judge F.M.I. Kalifulla, and tookon record the contents. The other two members of the panel are spiritual guruSri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate SriramPanchu.
The court has barred publication of the report contents asthe panel will continue the mediation process till the end of month.
“Taking into account what has been brought to ournotice by the said report, we now fix the hearing of the cases on and fromAugust 2. The Bench will assemble again on the August 2 at 2 p.m,” theorder said.
Earlier, the court had tentatively set July 25 for the startof daily hearing on appeals in the Ayodhya land dispute case. The courtobserved the hearing would be conducted if it felt the mediation had beeninconclusive.
The court also took on record the intervening applicationfiled by EjazMaqbool, seeking permission to point out discrepancies intranslations, if any, at the time of referring the relevant document during thefinal arguments.
The top court had on March 8 appointed a three-membermediation panel to talk to all stakeholders and try to reach a consensus toresolve the dispute. Recommending mediation, the court had said itwas looking for “a possibility of healing relationships”. It expectedthe mediation to succeed in developing a consensus on the sensitive matter. Itasked the panel to conduct in-camera proceedings and the complete the processin eight weeks.