A five-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Friday appointed a panel of mediators to look into a "permanent solution" to the Ayodhya dispute.
Here is a brief profile of the mediators:
CHENNAI, 08/11/2014: For Tamil Nadu Desk/City: Supreme Court Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla addressing at the inauguration of the new building Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in Chennai on Saturday. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam.
Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla
Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla retired as Supreme Court judge in July 2016. He has served as the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court. He is credited with setting up legal aid clinics across J&K during his tenure as the Chief Justice.
Justice Kalifulla started practicing as an advocate in 1975 and specialised in labour law. In 2000, he was made a judge of the Madras High Court.
Son of the late Justice M Fakkir Mohamed, Justice Kalifulla hails from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu.
He will be the chairperson of the mediators' panel.
Sriram Panchu
Sriram Panchu
A senior advocate, Sriram Panchu, set up the Tamil Nadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre in the Madras High Court in 2015. It was India’s first court-annexed mediation centre. He has been instrumental in making mediation a part of India's legal system.
He is a founder of The Mediation Chambers , which offers services in mediation and arbitration.
Mr. Panchu was also one of the foremost proponents of the consumer movements in the country , much before the Consumer Protection Act came into force.
Mr. Panchu was appointed as mediator by the Supreme Court in a land dispute involving the northeastern states of Assam and Nagaland. He was also a mediator in a public dispute involving the Parsi community in Mumbai.
Sri Ravishankar, founder, Art of Living. File photo H.S. Manjunath
Sri Sri Ravishankar
Sri Sri Ravishankar is a spiritual guru and the founder of the Art of Living organisation. A recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, Mr. Ravishankar was born in Tamil Nadu and lives in Bengaluru.
Through his Art of Living organisation, he mobilised trauma and disaster relief in conflict-affectd regions such as Sri Lanka, Haiti, Iraq, and Syria.
Mr. Ravishankar has been advocating for finding a solution to the Ayodhya dispute through mediation. He has met saints, sadhus and clerics in the past in this regard. In 2017, when he offered to mediate , the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad voiced their reservations. Last year, he courted controversy by saying, “If Ram Mandir issue is not resolved soon, we will have a Syria in India.”
