A new 5-judge Constitution Bench was constituted by the Supreme Court on Friday to hear on January 29 the politically sensitive Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute in Ayodhya.
The Bench was re-constituted as Justice UU Lalit, who was a member of the original bench, recused himself on January 10 after expressing disinclination to participate in the hearing any further as he had appeared as a lawyer for former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh in a connected matter “sometime in the year 1997”.
The new bench comprises of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer.
Justice NV Ramana, who was in the bench which last heard the matter on January 10, is also not a member in the new bench. Justices Bhushan and Nazeer are the new members in the bench.
A notice sent by the Supreme Court registry to various parties said that the Ayodhya dispute matter will be listed on Thursday, January 29, 2019, in “Chief Justice’s court before the constitution bench comprising the CJI, and Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer.”
Justices Bhushan and Nazeer were part of the 3-judge bench, then headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra (since retired), which on September 27, 2018 gave a 2:1 verdict refusing to refer to a
5-judge Constitution Bench reconsideration of the observation in its 1994 judgement that a mosque was not integral to Islam.
The matter arose during the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute.