Ayodhya verdict: Supreme Court dismisses review pleas

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of petitions seeking review of the November 9 Ayodhya land dispute verdict, which cleared the way for construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site.

The bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and also comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S.A. Nazeer and Sanjeev Khanna rejected 18 review petitions in-chamber, out of which nine have been filed by parties who were part of the earlier litigation and the other nine have been filed by "third parties".

Justice Khanna was the only judge who was not a part of the five-judge Constitution bench that had delivered the historic verdict.

He replaced the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who has retired.

The five-judge bench, headed by the then CJI 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 Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque in Ayodhya.

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.