The Supreme Court of India appointed 3 member mediating committee today to resolve the Ram-Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Dispute. The dispute is being heard in Indian courts since Independence,1947.
The Supreme Court asked the mediators to get to a permanent solution to resolve land dispute.
The court appointed a mediation panel which consists of three members Sri Sri Ravishankar, Justice Kalifulla and Sriram Panchu. The panel is granted eight weeks by the Supreme Court to arrive at a conclusion and four weeks to give a status report.
Justice FM Kalifulla enrolled as an advocate in 1975 and started practicing labour law in a private law firm. He served as a judge at the Madras High Court in 2000, then was moved to High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and was appointed as the Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. He sworn in as a judge at the Supreme Court of India in 2012 and retired from Supreme court of India in July 2016. He is a student of law for over 45 years, he brings in a lot of judicial experience to the committee.
Sriram Panchu is a Senior Advocate and Mediator. He is acknowledged as a pioneer of mediation in India. Since the 1990's he has been creating an awareness about the concept of mediation. He was instrumental in creating India’s first court-annexed mediation centre, a model replicated by other Courts in the country with his help. He has trained over 500 mediators. The Supreme Court in the past had appointed him to mediate the 50- year-old boundary dispute between the States of Assam and Nagaland.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual guru who founded the organisation Art of Living. He is renowned worldwide for for a violence-free society. He believes in constructive dialogues. Even though he is a guru, he is seen as a religious neutral figure due to his reach to multiple communities. In 2017, he met both members of both the Hindu and Muslim community when the court suggested for an out of court settlement. People perceived his thoughts and ideas in a very negative fashion.