The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to give an early hearing to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking facilities for the devotees visiting the disputed site in Ayodhya.
"You (Swamy) are just an intervener and your plea will be heard along with that of other aggrieved parties," a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.
Swamy mentioned the matter before the bench, also comprising Justice U U Lalit, and said that devotees who are visiting the disputed site are not getting basic amenities like drinking water, toilets etc.
He told the bench that the matter has been pending for long time and hearing in the case needs to be expedited.
The bench then said that if the aggrieved parties are here "we will hear you also".
To this, Swamy said that all the parties are here and he has the support of all of them for expeditious hearing of the matter.
Swamy said that his plea seeking facilities to the devotees has been tagged by another bench along with his petition in which he has been allowed to be an intervenor in the pending matters relating to the Ayodhya title dispute.
Earlier, the apex court had asked Swamy to mention the matter before the Chief Justice of India for seeking urgent hearing.
The apex court had last year asked the centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to consider providing better amenities feasible in the present scenario to pilgrims at 'Ram Janma Bhoomi' site.
"Let us do something. If possible, do something for the upkeep of the place and provide facilities for visitors," it had said.
Prior to this, it had asked the centre to file its response to the application filed by Swamy seeking facilities for the pilgrims.
Swamy had submitted in his plea that pilgrims, who are devotees of Lord Rama, are deprived of even basic facilities like drinking water and toilets and face difficulty due to inadequate arrangements made by both the centre and the UP government.
Swamy had said the status quo order passed by the apex court in 1996 was limited to prohibit building of any structure at the disputed site.
In his application, he had sought an order from the apex court to "ameliorate the lot of millions of Hindu pilgrims who make the pilgrimage to the site of the 'Ram Janma Bhoomi' at Ayodhya, to have a 'darshan' and perform 'pooja'."
