New Delhi:
Opposing the plea of Ramesh Chand Tripathi, a counsel for the Sunni Wakf Board said his petition was motivated and should not be entertained at this stage.
The lawyer contended that there must be an element of settlement which is acceptable to all the parties to resolve the dispute and sadly, this is missing here.
Senior advocate Ravi Shankar Prasad, appearing for one of the parties, said "He (Tripathi) is a non-serious party" who did not appear regularly before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court during the protracted hearing.
He said the plea that the pronouncement of the verdict may lead to adverse consequences should not be considered.
"If this arguments of consequences is accepted then even a bail plea could have a negative consequence," he said.
He said, "The High Court judges did try and made repeated attempts to resolve the dispute."
The senior lawyer said that no more time is required to be given to the parties for an out-of-court settlement.
Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, who appeared for one of the parties, agreed with Prasad and said "judicial function cannot be made hostage to consequences."
Sorabjee said that the out-of-court settlement was tried even by a former prime minister but he could not succeed.
"We are hundred per cent for the settlement, but also hundred per cent against the plea the judgement be deferred," he said.
The apex court, on September 23, had stayed for a week the High Court verdict, which was to be pronounced on September 24, after the retired bureaucrat approached it to explore a possibility of an out-of-court settlement.
The apex court had passed the interim stay amidst sharp differences of opinion on the issue of staying the verdict between Justices R V Raveendran and Justices H L Gokhale.
In the wake of differences between them, Justices Raveendran and Gokhale issued a notice on the plea and referred the case to the Chief Justice for constituting a larger bench.
Tripathi's petition pleaded for exploring the possibility of an out-of-court settlement on the 60-year-old Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit dispute.