Ram Mandir Babri Masjid: No progress with Mediation, plaintiff claims; seeks early hearing in SC

One of the original plaintiffs in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute today claimed before the Supreme Court that no progress has been made in the mediation ordered by the Court to settle the issue..The matter was mentioned before the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi today. The plaintiff also sought early hearing of the case in the Supreme Court..CJI Gogoi allowed the plaintiff to file an application to this effect..On March 8, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court referred the long-standing Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute for mediation. The mediation panel is chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice FMI Kalifulla and also comprises spiritualist Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Senior Advocate Sriram Panchu..The Court further ordered that the mediation proceedings shall be kept confidential and that there ought not to be any reporting of the said proceedings either in the print or in the electronic media. The order states,.“We are also of the view that the mediation proceedings should be conducted with utmost confidentiality so as to ensure its success which can only be safeguarded by directing that the proceedings of mediation and the views expressed therein by any of the parties including the learned Mediators shall be kept confidential and shall not be revealed to any other person.”.The mediators shall be empowered to pass specific written orders in this regard to restrain publication of details of mediation proceedings, the Court further held..A status report regarding the progress of the mediation was required to be submitted within four weeks..In May, the Court allowed the Mediation Committee set up to decide the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute at Ayodhya to complete the process by August 15. During the same date of hearing, CJI Gogoi had stated,.“We won’t disclose the progress made by the committee at this stage, let it remain confidential.”