New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the Constitution bench hearing the Ayodhya case will sit on February 26 at 10.30 am. The matter, which was earlier scheduled to be heard on January 29, was adjourned as Justice SA Bobde of the five-member bench was not available.
The SC has set up a five-judge Constitution bench – comprising of the CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer – to hear the appeal challenging the September 30, 2010 verdict of the Allahabad High Court. The bench reconstituted after one of the judges on the bench set up earlier this month — Justice U Lalit — recused from hearing it.
The High Court had ordered a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site between the Nirmohi Akhara sect; the Sunni Central Wakf Board, Uttar Pradesh; and Ramlalla Virajman.
The apex court will also hear a petition by seven Lucknow residents, who claimed to be devotees of Lord Ram, challenging the constitutional validity of the 1993 law under which the Centre acquired 67.703 acres of land in Ayodhya.
The petition, challenging The Acquisition of Certain Areas of Ayodhya Act, 1993, contends that the Parliament had no legislative competence to acquire land belonging to the state and that the state legislature had the exclusive power to make provisions relating to the management of affairs of religious institutions inside its territory.
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Ms Kalinga