File Picture Courtesy : The Indian Express
The Supreme Court has asked BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to mention for urgent hearing in July his plea seeking enforcement of his fundamental right to worship at the birth place of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
The BJP leader had on April 23 also mentioned the plea for urgent hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra saying his fundamental right to worship at the site was on a higher pedestal as against the property rights of the rival parties in the civil litigations over the dispute site.
“You (Swamy) come in July,” the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, on Wednesday said, adding that it was currently hearing the civil appeals related to the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute.
Swamy, at whose instance the sensitive land dispute case in Ayodhya were fast-tracked, had filed a separate petition for enforcement of his fundamental right to offer hassle-free prayer at the birth place of Lord Ram.
The Centre was represented at the hearing by senior advocate Aman Sinha.
A special bench of the CJI and Justices Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, on March 14, had dashed the hopes of activists like Shyam Benegal and Teesta Setalvad to intervene in the Ayodhya land dispute case, making it clear that only the parties to original lawsuits would be allowed contest.
It had also disallowed Swamy to intervene in the main case.
However, the bench had considered Swamy’s submission that he had not sought to intervene in the matter but filed a separate writ petition seeking enforcement of his fundamental right to worship at the birth place of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
“I had filed a writ petition saying that I have a fundamental right to worship and this is a superior right than property right,” Swamy had said.
However, the bench had said “as we are not inclined to permit the intervention application, the writ petition filed by the applicant (Swamy) shall stand revived and it shall be dealt with by the appropriate bench in accordance with law.”
The special bench of the apex court is seized of a total of 14 appeals filed against the high court judgement delivered in four civil suits.
A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
