Four former CJIs make their tryst with divinity

NEW DELHI: Four ex-CJIs and seven former Supreme Court judges attended the consecration event at Ayodhya, though CJI D Y Chandrachud and the other 32 SC judges kept themselves busy with judicial work on Monday.

The ex-CJIs who attended the ceremony are Justices V N Khare, J S Khehar, N V Ramana and U U Lalit. It was Justice Khehar who had suggested for a negotiated settlement to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute on March 21, 2017, when Subramanian Swamy had sought early hearing of appeals challenging an Allahabad high court judgment of Sept 30, 2010 that had tri-furcated the disputed site equally among Ram Lalla (deity), Sunni Wakf Board and Nirmohi Akhara.

CJI Khehar had even offered to provide a sitting SC judge to facilitate negotiations between the Hindu and Muslim sides and advised both to take “give a bit and take a bit” approach. “If the parties want a brother judge, I am ready to provide him for facilitating negotiations,” he had offered. But none listened to him.

When a bench of then CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer commenced hearing of the appeals in August 2019, Justice Gogoi had reluctantly accepted Justice Bobde’s suggestion to allow a parallel negotiation effort through a committee of Justice (Rtd) F M I Kalifulla, Sriram Panchu and Sr Sri Ravi Shankar.

Despite some painstaking efforts, the committee had failed to deliver and the bench went ahead and pronounced its verdict on Nov 9, 2019 giving the disputed land along with surrounding 2.77 acres for construction of Ram temple. It had also asked UP government to provide five acres of prime land at Ayodhya to the Muslim side for construction of a mosque.

Of the five-judge Ayodhya bench, only Justice Bhushan, who at present is chairman of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), attended the Ram Mandir ceremony. The other six former SC judges who attended the ceremony are A R Dave, K S Radhakrishnan, Vineet Saran, Arun Mishra, V Ramasubramanian and A K Goel.