MASSIVE: Supreme Court to take up Ayodhya case on Thursday, decision on mediation panel's report likely

In a massive breaking development, the Supreme Court is going to hear the Ayodhya land dispute case on Thursday, July 11. The Apex Court is likely to decide on the mediation in the matter.

The Supreme Court had on March 8 ordered a time-bound 8-week mediation into the decades-old Ayodhya dispute while appointing the mediation panel comprising of three mediators - retired Supreme Court Justice Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sriram Panchu. UP's Faizabad was set as the location where the mediation would be held. Notably, the eight-week deadline for the mediation talks culminated earlier on May 3. 

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On March 13, the top court-appointed mediators issued an order following the first day of their discussions with stakeholders at the Awadh university at Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh.

"The Committee brings to the notice of all concerned, the observation of the Honourable Supreme Court of India, which is to the following effect: We are also of the view that the mediation proceedings should be conducted with utmost confidentiality so as to ensure its success which can only be safeguarded by directing that the proceedings of mediation and the views expressed therein by any of the parties including the learned mediators shall be kept confidential and shall not be revealed to any other person," the report by the three mediators read.

Further, the three-member committee had also directed that there should not be any reporting of the mediation proceedings in the print or any other media.

On May 10, a five-judge Constitution bench heard the Ayodhya dispute case during when Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that the Chairperson of the committee had sought time till August 15 to complete the mediation process. The 5-judge Supreme Court bench headed by CJI Gogoi and comprising of Justices S.A. Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer allowed for the same and passed an order to that effect. 

The Ayodhya mediation panel was given time till August 15 to find a solution in the land dispute.

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