SC commends lawyers for Hindu, Muslim parties for assistance in Ayodhya case

The Supreme Court Saturday was all praise for 92-year-old former Attorney General and senior advocate K Parasaran, senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, who led arguments for Hindu parties and senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan for Muslim parties in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case. The top court said that in crafting the 1,045-page verdict the forensic contest before the Court has provided a valuable insight in navigating through the layers of complexity of the case.

A five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said that the erudition of counsel, their industry, vision and above all, dispassionate objectivity in discharging their role as officers of the court must be commended. "We acknowledge the assistance rendered by Mr K Parasaran and Dr Rajeev Dhavan, Senior Counsels who led the arguments. Their fairness to the cause which they espouse and to their opponents as, indeed, to the court during the course of the hearings has facilitated the completion of the hearings in the spirit that all sides have ultimately been engaged in the search of truth and justice," the top court said.

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, commended other senior lawyers as well including S K Jain, Ranjit Kumar, Zafaryab Jilani, Meenakshi Arora, Shekhar Naphade, Vikas Singh and P S Narasimha -- appearing for various parties -- for their assistance. Parasaran, who has also assisted the court in another constitution bench matter on the issue of allowing women of all ages to Sabarimala temple, was Attorney General of India during the tenure of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as prime ministers between 1983 and 1989.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in the year 2003 and Padma Vibhushan in the year 2011.

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