Supreme Court okays repair work on Ayodhya's Ram temple without any additions

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday approved carrying out of repair work at the makeshift Ram temple in Ayodhya and directed Faizabad’s district commissioner to ensure this was done in the presence of observers.

A three-judge bench of Justices T.S. Thakur, V. Gopala Gowda and R. Banumathi directed the advocates for the contesting parties claiming title over the disputed site to sort out the bulky case-related documents or wait 10 years before the court could hear cross-appeals against the Allahabad HC ruling.

The bench earlier took note of the commissioner’s report that the temporary structure had got dilapidated and needed repair so that people could worship Lord Ram. The court said Faizabad’s district commissioner should carry out the repair work under the commissioner’s supervision.

There should be no addition to the existing structure of Ram temple as the court has specifically directed that the measurement, size and quality of items used must be similar to the existing ones.

Pointing out that the case-related documents are in several languages, including Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit, that would require translation, the bench told counsel for the parties: “The record is massive and documents are of varied kind. It would take 10 years to complete the paperwork in this case.”

It ordered the Supreme Court registry to provide the digitalised record — similar to the one before the High Court — to the advocates arguing the case before this court.

After getting a copy of the record, the lawyers would then compare it with the hard copy of the case files that took two years to be transferred from the High Court to the Supreme Court.

Once this exercise was over, the matter would then be placed for a hearing before the appropriate bench.