The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the amicable settlement of the Ayodhya Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute was a better course than on insisting on judicial pronouncement.
A bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said this as BJP leader Subramanian Swamy urged it to constitute a bench to hear a batch of petitions challenging a 2010 Allahabad High Court order.
The 2010 order said that there should be a partition of the Ayodhya land between the parties to the dispute.
Saying that negotiated settlement between the parties to the dispute was the best course, Chief Justice Khehar offered to act as a mediator provided that he would not hear the matter on the judicial side.
Pointing towards Justice Kaul, the Chief Justice said that he too could mediate.
Justice Khehar told Swamy: "Any person of your choice. You want me to mediate (but) I will not hear (on judicial side). You want my brother (Judge). There are issues. You all sit together across the table and decide."