Who are the three men appointed by the SC to mediate in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute case?

The Supreme Court on Friday referred Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute case for mediation and appointed former apex court judge Justice (retd) F M I Kallifulla as chairperson of the panel of mediators. The other members of the panel will be spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.

FMI Kalifulla enrolled as an advocate on August 20,1975, after which he began practicing labour law in the law firm of TS Gopalan & Co. On March 2, 2000, he was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court. He was also an active labour law practitioner. In September 2011, he was named as the Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. On 2 April 2012, he was named to the Supreme Court of India, sworn in by Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia. He is son of Late Justice M Fakkir Mohamed.

Sriram Panchu is a senior advocate and mediator. He is a founder of The Mediation Chambers, which offers services in mediation and med-arb. He had set up India’s first court-annexed mediation centre in 2005, and has been instrumental in making mediation a part of India's legal system. He was appointed by India's Supreme Court to mediate a 500 square kilometre dispute between the states of Assam and Nagaland, and another public dispute involving the Parsi community in Bombay.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of Art of Living. He has had a conflicted past. In 2012, he had stated that some government schools are training grounds for ‘Naxalism’ and that all government schools must be privatised. In 2016, the National Green Tribunal had held him responsible for causing damage to the Yamuna floodplains during this three-day World Culture Festival in March 2016.

Sri Sri had been advocating for a constructive dialogue between the opposing parties on Ram Mandir issue. He has stated earlier that, "If Ram Mandir issue is not solved, we will have a Syria in India.”