New Delhi: With the Supreme Court of India announcing a three-member panel as mediators in Ayodhya dispute case on Friday, the ever widening dispute seems to be likely heading towards a logical conclusion.
The panel is being headed by former apex court judge Justice (retd) F M Kallifulla and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu as members.
While there has been similar mediation attempts in the past, ETV Bharat provides you with a chronology of such mediation attempts.
Earlier Mediation Attempts:
- 1986: Talks started between then Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamkoti and President of Muslim Personal Law Board, Ali Miyan Nadvi. However, it failed to make an impact.
- 1990: Then PM Chandrasekhar tried to broker truce between the two communities ,however, talks were disrupted when alleged VHP volunteers damaged a portion of the mosque.
- 2002: Then PM AB Vajpayee set up an Ayodhya cell in his office and appointed senior party official Shahtrughan Singh to hold talks with Hindu and Muslim Leaders.
- 2003: A significant effort for a negotiated settlement was made by Kanchi Shankaracharya. However, it broke down after he sent a letter to the AIMPLB.
- 2010 -Nirmohi Akhara initiated talks in 2010 with ABVP and Hashim Ansari, the original plaintiff from the Muslim side to work on a compromise formula but they were inconclusive.
- 2014: Talks between Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant with Hindu parties failed. As per reports, in 2014, Ansari wanted to put an end to the dispute and make ‘a fresh start’, he had said he wanted to talk with PM Narendra Modi ‘for an out-of-court settlement.’ He later admitted that he had given the power of attorney to his son Iqbal regarding the case.
- 2015: Talks began again after Swami Chakrapani, President of the All India Hindu Mahasabha met the Muslim litigants represented by Mohd Hashim Ansari. However, parleys didn't move beyond the first meeting. Ansari also began track II negotiations with Mahant Gyan Das ,chief priest of the Hanuman Garhi Temple. Duo drew up a plan in which both a temple and a mosque would come up on the disputed 70 acres of land but would be separated by a 100 ft wall.
- 2016: Mahant Narendra Giri, the newly elected President of All India Akhara Parishad, met Mohammad Hashim Ansari. Before any headway could be made, though Ansari passed away.
- 2016: Retired HC Judge Justice Palok Basu submitted a proposal for an out-of-court settlement signed by over 10,000 Hindus and Muslims fefore Faizabad divisional commissioner. Settlement document was placed under Supreme Court.
- 2017 : This attempt by the court at coaxing the parties into negotiating a settlement was, however, not formal, and did not go anywhere.
- Suggestion by CJI J S Khehar: Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, in an unprecedented move, had offered to act as a mediator between the Hindu and Muslim sides. Calling it a “sentimental” issue, he said that the best way to reach an amicable solution would be to hold negotiations outside the court.
- 2018 -Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had also attempted to have negotiations between all parties in the case.
MEDIATION ATTEMPT IN HIGH COURT
- 2010: The three-judge bench of the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, too, had tried mediation. After arguments concluded on August 3, 2010, the bench had called all lawyers into the chamber and asked whether they wanted to reconcile. The process had collapsed apparently after the ‘Hindu’ side said it was not acceptable.
