Lucknow, September 20: Justice Dharam Veer Sharma of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday passed a dissenting order against the order passed by two other judges — S U Khan and Sudhir Agarwal — against postponing the Ayodhya case verdict, on September 17.
Sharma claimed that the two judges passed the order without consulting him and there is still room for exploring the option of an out-of-court settlement.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court had on Friday refused to defer its verdict on the title suit of the disputed site at Ayodhya.
The court had dismissed an application seeking an out-of-court settlement of the Ayodhya title suit, which was filed a couple of days ago.
It had also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, who had sought a court order directing both parties to settle the matter out-of-court or even take the matter into arbitration, as the fallout of this verdict could be violent.
While Hindus claim that the land is the site of the birthplace of their most revered Lord Ram, Muslims assert their right over the same as the site of a 16th century mosque, claimed to have been built by Mughal emperor Babur in the ancient town of Ayodhya, nearly 120 km from Lucknow.
The Babri Masjid at the site was razed on December 6, 1992, by karsevaks and right-wing extremists who claimed that it was the Ram Janmabhoomi site. The Babri Masjid demolition had triggered unprecedented communal riots, which had claimed thousands of lives.
———Agencies