Justice delayed is justice denied: Adityanath on Ayodhya

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said the majority community in the country expects an early Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi title suit saying "justice delayed is justice denied".

"If justice is given in time it is appreciated as fair but when delayed it is equivalent to injustice," Adityanath tweeted, adding that the "majority community in the country and the peace-loving people expect the verdict at the earliest, honouring their sentiments".

The Advocate General of the state government has also appealed for the same, he pointed out. 

The Chief Minister's tweets came a day after the Supreme Court said an appropriate bench would take up the matter of its hearing only in January 2019. 

Responding to the growing dissatisfaction among the seers' community over the postponement of the daily hearing that was expected earlier to start from October 29, Adityanath pleaded with them not to "lose patience and join hands with the positive efforts being made in the direction". 

He said in the interim transitionary phase the holy men should boost positive efforts to strengthen peace and harmony in the country.

On whether he expected the verdict to be out before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Adityanath said he wanted the issue to be settled as soon as possible as the "responsibility of maintaining law and order in the state was on him". 

He said though "consensus remains the best solution, there were many other ways to thrash out..."

Adityanath, however, throughout his string of Twitter thread, maintained that "like any other person he respected the judiciary and understood the constitutional constraints". 

On the promulgation of an ordinance for constructing the Ram temple, the BJP leader said "the matter was sub-judice but that he was of the view that all options should be explored".

His comments were being seen in political circles as an attempt by the BJP to put pressure on the judiciary for an early settlement of the issue. On Monday, his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya said delaying of the hearing by the Supreme Court had "sent wrong signals".