(ET)
The Supreme Court will begin hearing Monday the Ayodhya title suit which has been pending in the top court since 2010. A bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi will hear the petition, along with Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph. The case was earlier being heard by former CJI Dipak Misra and Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Ashok Bhushan. Former CJI Misra has since demitted office and CJI Gogoi taken over.
The earlier bench had refused to refer the issue to a five-judge bench. But the new bench could, if it found it necessary, refer the matter to a larger bench. It would also decide whether the case needed to be heard on a day-to-day basis given the delay so far in hearing it. After no side was able to prove title, the Allahabad High Court had in 2010 divided the land on which the Babri Masjid structure once stood in Ayodhya in the ratio of two-to-one between the warring Hindu and Muslim.
