New Delhi, March 7: The Supreme Court on Friday will decide whether the contentious Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case should be sent for court-appointed and monitored mediation. A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on mediation as some of the Hindu parties and Uttar Pradesh sounded sceptical about the outcome of the mediation.

In the last hearing, the Supreme Court said it was conscious of the gravity of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute and the outcome of mediation on the body politic of the country. The court also indicated that the mediation proceedings would not be open to media reporting.

The five-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer had asked the contesting parties to explore the possibility of amicably settling the decades-old dispute through mediation, saying it may help in "healing relations". Even if there is "one per cent chance" of settling the dispute amicably, the parties should go for mediation, the bench had observed.

The suggestion for mediation was mooted by Justice Bobde, during the hearing when both the Hindu and the Muslim sides were sparring over the veracity of documents related to the case which were translated by the Uttar Pradesh government and filed with the apex court registry.

The apex court is hearing of a batch of cross-petitions challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict trifurcating the disputed site and giving one party each to the Nirmohi Akhada, Ram Lalla and the Sunni Waqf Board.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 07, 2019 05:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).