The Supreme Court on Friday (20 September) decided to extend the daily hearing of the Ayodhya title dispute case by an hour from Monday next week. The court had earlier set 18 October as the deadline to conclude the hearing on the matter.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has been holding the daily hearing on the matter after the court appointed mediation panel headed by a former apex court judge failed to arrive at an amicable resolution.

On the twenty eighth day of the hearing, the bench told the counsel of the Hindu and Muslim parties that a decision has been made by the judges that they could squeeze in an extra hour for the hearing. The bench usually rises at 4 pm everyday, which is the general time to conclude the hearing of various matters. But, for the Ayodhya case the judges will sit till 5 pm, giving one hour extra to the court proceedings.

"We can sit for extra one hour from Monday (23 September)," said the bench, which besides the CJI, has Justices S. A. Bobde, D. Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. A. Nazeer as the other members.

The Chief Justice is scheduled to retire on 17 November. Therefore, the court has set a deadline to conclude all the hearings in the matter on or before 18 October, which means all the parties involved in the matter have to finish their arguments within the deadline. The court has also asked all the stakeholders involved in the case to respect the deadline and attempt to meet it.

Judgement is likely in the protracted land title dispute in the middle of November.

The Allahabad High Court in 2010 in its judgement equally partitioned the 2.77 acre disputed area among the three parties -- Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and Sunni Waqf Board.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)