Court?s verdict must be accepted if no solution through talks: Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi : The contesting parties in the Ayodhya title suit must accept the court?s verdict if they cannot resolve the issue through dialogue, Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday.

A day before the Supreme Court is to hear a plea to defer the verdict in the 60-year-old title suit, the Union minister urged the contesting parties to accept the judgement.

?The two contesting parties who filed the Ayodhya title suit have to resolve the matter among themselves through discussions. If it was not possible, then the court verdict has to be accepted,? Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a function here.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia, will hear the Ayodhya verdict deferment petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday (September 28).

The bench includes Justices Aftab Alam and KS Radhakrishnan.

The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 23) stayed the much-awaited verdict on the Ayodhya title suit by the Allahabad High Court?s Lucknow bench by a week, leaving “room” for a possible out of court settlement, an option trashed by the contending parties.

The verdict on the 60- year-old Ayodhya title suits to determine who owns the disputed land is being awaited with eagerness by both the Muslims and Hindus and with consternation by the governments tasked to prevent riots over the issue.

Over 2,000 people were killed in the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid by Hindu kar sevaks on December 6, 1992, who claimed the Masjid was built after demolishing a Ram temple in 1528.