Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute case: SC issues notice to Chennai Professor on contempt plea by Rajeev Dhavan

The 18th day of hearing in Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid title dispute case was held before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The SC bench hearing the case was led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer.

It is to be noted that Hindu parties have already completed their arguments in this case and Muslim parties started putting forward their arguments from Monday.

The hearing in the case had commenced on August 6 with arguments being made on behalf of the Nirmohi Akhara. In the following hearings, apart from the Nirmohi Akhara, submissions were also made on behalf of the deity Ram Lalla.

Here are the updates from Tuesday's hearing:

# "Issue notice to the respondent (Shanmugam) for two weeks. Let him file his detailed response in two weeks," said CJI Ranjan Gogoi after hearing the contempt petition filed by Dr Dhavan.

# The Supreme Court issued a notice to 88-year-old Chennai-based professor, N Shanmugham, who had allegedly threatened Dr Rajeev Dhavan and asked him not to appear on behalf of the Sunni Waqf Board in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

# Dhawan argued before the SC that a stone was found with 'Allah' inscribed on it from the Mehrab of disputed property. He added that the emergence of idols inside the mosque in 1949 was not due to any cosmic intervention but was a 'planned attack'. 

# Lawyer for Muslim parties Rajeev Dhawan told the SC that it is being claimed that Muslims did not offer prayers there but the fact is that they were not allowed to go there since 1934. He added that Hindus used to organise Rath Yatra near the disputed land in order to grab it. According to Dhawan, Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had ordered the reconstruction of 30 mosques which were demolished in Delhi in 1947 after partition. He also told the SC that Faizabad's DM K K Nayar was biased against Muslims and he kept on claiming that there was a temple in Ayodhya which was demolished by Muslims.

# Supreme Court issues notice to a Tamil Nadu-based professor N Shanguman while hearing a contempt plea filed by advocate Rajeev Dhawan.

# Rajeev Dhawan had filed the contempt plea claiming that the professor has written a letter to him saying he should be cursed for representing the Muslim parties in Ayodhya case.