NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a batch of petitions seeking review of its November 9 Ayodhya land dispute case verdict which cleared the way for construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site.

The top court, which took these review pleas for consideration in-chamber, rejected them after finding no merit.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S A Nazeer and Sanjeev Khanna considered the review pleas of only those who were parties to the four lawsuits filed initially in the vexatious dispute.

There were 18 review petitions, out of which nine have been filed by parties who were part of the earlier litigation and the other nine were filed by "third parties". The apex court refused to entertain nine review pleas filed by those who were not party to the original litigation.

Among the nine "third parties" were 40 rights activists who had jointly moved the top court seeking review of its verdict.

With the rejection of these review petitions, the consequential request of parties for an open court hearing on these pleas also get dismissed.

A 5-judge bench, headed by the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, had in a unanimous verdict on November 9 decreed the entire 2.77 acre disputed land in favour of deity 'Ram Lalla' and also directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque in Ayodhya.

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