Justice UU Lalit recuses himself from Ayodhya case 

knowledge sir 11 janury 2019,

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court judge UU Lalit on Thursday recused himself from the five-judge bench hearing the Ayodhya case, forcing Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to defer his decision to fix the hearing schedule till the bench is reconstituted. 

The next date of hearing will be decided on January 29, CJI Gogoi said. In the interim, he will pass an administrative order identifying a fifth judge. 

The CJI had earlier named himself, and four other judges who are in line to become CJI in the future to hear the title suit. Among those on the bench were Justice SA Bobde who will take over from him, and Justices NV Ramana, Lalit and DY Chandrachud. 

But as soon as the bench convened, lead lawyer for the Sunni Central Wakf Board, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan pointed out that Lalit had appeared as counsel in the Kalyan Singh case related to the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi structure dem .. 

Singh was Uttar Pradesh chief minister when the structure was razed by a mob. Dhavan said that he was leaving the decision to recuse to the judge. Senior advocate Harish Salve spoke up for the judge, saying that it was a different case. Singh faced contempt of court for failing to maintain status quo in Ayodhya despite commitments to the court in the wake of the demolition. The Kalyan Singh case dates back to 1997. 

Justice Lalit then recused himself. A new bench will now have to be cons .. 

Justice Lalit then recused himself. A new bench will now have to be constituted including a fifth judge to hear the case. That bench will assemble on January 29 and take a call on the date of hearing and prepare a schedule. The CJI hinted at the sheer magnitude of the case when he said that 120 issues have been framed. 

“A total of 88 witnesses examined. The depositions of witnesses run into 13,886 pages. 257 documents were exhibited. The judgement runs into 4,304 pages. Original records .. 

CJI Gogoi had instead assigned it to a five-judge bench. 

The CJI said that the official translations of documents in Hindi, Gurmukhi, Persian, Sanskrit and Arabic would also have to be checked for correctness as both parties were disputing it. All this would be completed by January 29 when the bench will reassemble to pass further orders.