Ayodhya group echoes need for ‘amicable settlement’

LUCKNOW - Barely an hour before a special three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court was to hear an application seeking to defer its Sep 24 verdict in the long-pending temple-mosque row, a key Ayodhya group echoed the need for efforts towards an out-of-court “amicable settlement” on the vexed issue.

The group is the Ayodhya-based ‘Nirmohi Akhara’, a prominent Hindu monastery that has been pursuing the cause of the much debated Ram temple for decades.

Akhara chief Raja Ram Chandra Acharya drove down to Lucknow Friday afternoon to make a fervent appeal before the court to defer its verdict.

He was accompanied by his lawyer Ranjit Lal Verma, who told mediapersons: “We also feel that efforts must be made for an amicable settlement.”

Asked what made him change his stand at the eleventh hour, Verma said: “Well, that was the common view of sadhus and saints of Ayodhya, hence we have come here to make a request for postponement of the judgment.”

A low-profile retired government officer, Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, has hit the spotlight in the Ayodhya case thanks to his last-ditch effort to settle the dispute amicably and out of court.

Tripathi, 73, has sought deferment of the judgment and the special bench here will take a call on his plea later Friday — exactly a week before it is scheduled to give ruling on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi temple tangle.