Supreme Court dismisses all pleas seeking review of Ayodhya verdict

The Supreme Court of India (SC), on December 12, dismissed a batch of petitions seeking a review of its November 9 Ayodhya land dispute case verdict.

The November 9 verdict had cleared the way for construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

The 18 petitions were being considered by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde and comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, SA Nazeer and Sanjeev Khanna.

Of the 18 review petitions in-chamber, nine have been filed by parties who were part of the earlier litigation and the other nine have been filed by "third parties".

On December 2, the first plea seeking review of Ayodhya verdict was filed in the apex court by Maulana Syed Ashhad Rashidi, legal heir of original litigant M Siddiq and also the Uttar Pradesh president of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind.

On December 6, six petitions were filed in the apex court seeking review of its November 9 judgement.

On December 9, two more review petitions were filed, one by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and the other by 40 persons, including rights activists who have jointly moved the court seeking review of its verdict.

A five-judge bench, headed by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi, had in a unanimous verdict on November 9 decreed the entire 2.77 acre disputed land in favour of deity 'Ram Lalla' and also directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque in Ayodhya.

(With PTI inputs)