The Supreme Court witnessed high drama on Wednesday when senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan earned the wrath of the constitution bench on tearing up a map of the disputed site.
Dhavan is the lawyer representing the Muslim parties and the map happened to be from the book “Ayodhya revisited” and shows the contentious spot as the birthplace of Lord Ram, which the senior advocate apparently took objection to. “Can I have your permission to tear it,” Mr Dhawan said to the judges and promptly; went on to do precisely that. Leading an angry CJI Ranjan Gogoi to say “Decorum has been spoiled. If the proceedings continued like this, “we can’t hear anyone”. We will just go through the papers. It isn’t only about the time but the decorum. As far as we are concerned, hearings look over.”
Today is the 40th day of the hearing before the constitution bench in the sensitive case that has defied a solution for years and hearing on the matter is likely to end at 5 pm. Earlier in the day CJI Gogoi had negatived a lawyer’s request for more time for hearings, saying “We will rise by 5 pm. Enough is enough.”
–India Legal Bureau