Senior advocate opposes demand on Ayodhya case

New Delhi: Senior advocate K. Parasaran on Thursday strongly opposed in the Supreme Court the demand made on behalf of Muslims that the appeals relating to Ayodhya title suits must be adjudicated by a Constitution bench of five judges, including the issue whether offering namaz in mosque is not an essential and integral part of Islam.

Making his submissions before a three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer, senior advocate Mr Parasaran said the judgment rendered in case of Ismail Farooqui in 1994 did not require any reconsideration.

He opposed revisiting the 1994 verdict on the ground that the observations in this case had no relevance in deciding the title suits. Revisiting the 1994 judgment again would amount to review, which is not permissible.

Further, the observations made in 1994 judgment were in the context of acquisition and has nothing to do with the secular character, he said and asked the three-judge bench to decide the appeals as purely a civil dispute.

Mr Parasaran pointed out that the court couldn’t revisit a judgment merely because one sentence in it is not acceptable to one of the parties when the judgment had been rendered on merits. Only if a question of law is left unanswered, the court can entertain the plea for revisit of the judgment.

The 1994 verdict had attained finality in relation to acquisition, which has been upheld by this court, and this cannot be re-opened.