New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Sunday cancelled the January 29 hearing in the politically-sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case as one member of the five-judge Constitution bench would not be available.

The sitting of the Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi stands cancelled as Justice S A Bobde will not be available on January 29, as per a notice issued by the Supreme Court registry.

“Take notice that due to non availability of Justice S A Bobde on January 29, 2019 sitting of Constitution bench in Chief Justice’s court, comprising the Chief Justice, Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, stands cancelled.

“Therefore, Constitution bench matter will not be taken up for hearing,” the notice stated.The five-judge bench was re-constituted on January 25 as Justice U U Lalit, who was a member of the original bench, had recused himself from hearing the matter.

Both of them were part of a earlier bench headed by then CJI Dipak Misra . It had on September 27, 2018, refused to refer to a five-judge Constitution bench the reconsideration of the observation in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam.

While Misra and Bhushan had said it has to find out the context in which the five-judge bench had delivered the 1994 judgment, Justice Nazeer had given a minority verdict disagreeing with the two judges.Nazeer had said whether a mosque is integral to Islam has to be decided considering religious belief which requires detailed consideration.