Nirmohi Akhada hails apex court’s deferring Ayodhya verdict

AYODHYA - The head of the Nirmohi Akhada - one of the key parties in the Ayodhya title dispute - Thursday hailed the Supreme Court’s move to defer the Ayodhya verdict, saying there was no issue that “cannot be solved amicably with the blessings of the Almighty”.

“We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision… I personally believe it will give some more time to the parties to solve the dispute amicably,” the 80-year-old Mahant Bhaskar Das told reporters here.

The Nirmohi Akhada had supported the petition for postponement of the Ayodhya verdict filed earlier by retired bureaucrat Ramesh Chandra Tripathi in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.

“I would only like to appeal to the public to have patience till the final settlement of the case… We need to ensure that peace and communal harmony continue to prevail among the members of both the communities (Hindus and Muslims) irrespective of the outcome of the dispute,” Das said.

The Supreme Court Thursday deferred till Sep 28 its ruling on the pronouncement of the Ayodhya verdict by the Lucknow bench.

The apex court also issued notices to all the parties to the title suit and asked Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati to be present in the court when the case is heard five days later.

The ruling followed a petition by Tripathi seeking postponement of the high court verdict at least until the end of the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games. It also sought the apex court’s direction to the parties to explore possibilities of an out of court amicable settlement.