Lucknow: After petitioner Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, who had sought deferment of the Ayodhya verdict, another key party in the matter, Nirmohi Akhara, plans to move the Supreme Court for postponement of the judgment for three months to facilitate an out-of-court amicable settlement, it has been revealed.
This was disclosed by Nirmohi Akhara counsel Ranjit Lal Verma on Monday here just before leaving for Delhi to move an application in the apex court.
"I am heading for Delhi to move an application before the apex court for postponing the verdict for three months," Lal said.
He is also seeking the apex court's intervention for granting extension to a judge of the Allahabad High Court, Dharam Veer Sharma, who is scheduled to retire at the end of the this month.
Justice Sharma is one of the three judges on the high court bench which is due to deliver its judgment on the Ayodhya dispute. The high court had reserved its verdict July 27 and announced it would pronounce it on September 24.
The apex court later imposed an interim stay on the pronouncement of the judgment by the high court till Tuesday (September 28). The apex court is now scheduled to take a final call on Tripathi's plea on Tuesday.
Retired bureaucrat Tripathi approached the apex court for postponing the high court verdict till at least the end of the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games. He also sought the court's direction to the parties to explore the possibility of an out-of-court amicable settlement.
He challenged the high court order rejecting his plea for deferring the pronouncement of the verdict so that there could be some mediation for an amicable settlement of the dispute.
Tripathi's petition was turned down by the three-judge special bench of the high court two weeks ago. While two judges S.U. Khan and Sudhir Agrawal rejected the application, the third judge, Dharam Veer Sharma, allowed the plea, following which Tripathi chose to move the apex court.
The high court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Tripathi.
Nirmohi Akhara is a key party in the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi title suit.