Buoyed by the Supreme Court putting on hold the Ayodhya verdict for a week, petitioner Tripathi's lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said he would urge it in the next hearing to defer it further to enable the religious leaders sit together sort out the issue amicably.
"We will try and tell the court the matter should be deferred further and that parties involved in the dispute -- the religious leaders -- should be asked to sit and solve the matter amicably," he said.
"This issue is not about 10 or 100 people.
It involves millions of people and there should be representation from all the concerned parties," Rohatgi said, pointing out that the razing of the Babri Mosque standing on the disputed site in 1992 had triggered the worst communal violence since the partition of the India resulting in more than 2000 deaths.
The Supreme Court's intervention was, however, greeted with dismay by some involved in the Ayodhya dispute who argued that the time for mediation was over.
"It's really unfortunate.
People were waiting for the verdict," said S.Q.R.
Ilyas, convener of a committee representing Muslim interests in the dispute.
He said: "All efforts at reaching an amicable solution have been made without result.
The court verdict...
is the need of the hour." BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was appearing as a senior counsel arguing against the petition in the Supreme Court, said he was disappointed.
"I respect the court decision, but I can tell you that there is no possibility of an amicable solution," Prasad said.
The petitioner is lucky to get the court's intervention though he is a non-serious party who was never involved in the suit, he asserted.
