A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi directed the hearing for next year on a batch of petitions challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict trifurcating the disputed site in Ayodhya into three parts for Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and the original Muslim litigant.

Besides Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph were also on the bench.

On September 27, the top court bench led by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, along with Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, by a 2:1 majority rejected the plea challenging the high court judgment and had directed that the matter would be heard by a three-judge bench from October 29.

The newly constituted bench on Monday was expected to hear a batch of petitions filed by both the sides -- Hindu and Muslim stakeholders -- challenging the high court judgement.

The Muslim petitioners had pressed for hearing the challenge to the high court judgment by a five-judge bench as the court had relied on a 1994 top court judgment that said a mosque was not essential to Islam for offering 'namaz'.