NEW DELHI: The stormy scenes witnessed in the Supreme Court eight months ago when it began hearing petitions challenging the Allahabad HC verdict dividing the disputed Ayodhya land equally between Hindus, Muslims and Ram Lalla were on show again on Friday, albeit for different reasons, before the court reserved its order on whether the matter should be referred to a five-judge bench.

Even before senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan could wrap up his arguments on behalf of Muslim parties to the dispute, an advocate vociferously protested before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer that Dhavan had defamed the entire Hindu community by arguing on July 13 that Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, by “Hindu Taliban”.

Dhavan refused to back down and reiterated his argument to further infuriate the advocate who kept repeating loudly that the counsel must withdraw his comments. With Dhavan and the advocate having a go at each other, the CJI intervened and said, “There should be some decorum when counsel argue before the court.”

