The Supreme Court on Monday refused to accord urgent hearing to a petition that sought live streaming or recording of the day-to-day hearing in the Ayodhya dispute that is to begin tomorrow.

The plea was moved by RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya and mentioning the matter for urgent hearing before a bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and B R Gavai. “We don’t know if we have equipment for live streaming or recording of proceedings,” the bench told the counsel. The court, while refusing to accord urgent hearing, said it would require institutional decision and deliberation on the matter.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on Friday said it would hold day-to-day hearing from Tuesday to decide the politically-sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya, as the efforts to arrive at an amicable settlement through mediation have failed.

The top court, which had taken note of the report of the three member mediation panel, headed by former supreme court judge FMI Kalifulla, had said that the mediation proceedings, which went on for about four months, have not resulted in any final settlement and it has to decide the matter pending before it.

—India Legal Bureau