The Supreme Court will deliver its landmark verdict on the Ayodhya dispute at 10:30 am on Saturday, ending decades of uncertainty on the issue. The decision was taken by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in consultation with the four other judges deciding the case late this evening.

The five-judge constitution bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi had reserved the judgement on October 16 after a marathon hearing of 40 days.Earlier today, he had met top Uttar Pradesh officials to discuss law-and-order arrangements in this regard.

The other members of the bench are Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer. There was no clarity on the dateof the verdict until now, other than the fact that it would be delivered before Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi retires on November 17. Justice SA Bobde,who will take over as the next Chief Justice, had called the Ayodhya case"one of the most important in the world". Appeals for peace have come from Hindu and Muslim organisations and various political leaders ahead of the verdict. While the home ministry has asked all states to be on alert, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a three-hour review meeting withtop police and administration officials in Lucknow last night.

The Chief Minister has asked for two helicopters to be on standby, one in Lucknow and one in Ayodhya, to tackle any possible emergency.The dispute over 2.77 acres of land in Ayodhya, claimed by both Hindus and Muslims,has dominated political discourse since the 1980s. In 1992, right wing activist store down the 16th century Babri mosque that they believed was built on the ruins of an ancient temple that marked the birthplace of the Lord Ram. In the riots that followed, more than 3,000 people were killed across the country.

In September 2010, the Allahabad High Court ruled at hree-way division of the disputed land between the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla, the parties involved in the case. Displeased with the verdict, all three moved the Supreme Court. While Hindu activists want atemple to be rebuilt on the site, Muslim groups claim that there is no evidence to conclusively establish that the Babri mosque was built on the ruins of atemple. Ahead of the Ayodhya verdict, senior RSS and BJP leaders had held ameeting with prominent Muslim clerics and intellectuals at the residence ofMinority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in Delhi to stress thatirrespective of the nature of the top court's ruling, there should neither be'junooni jashn' (excessive celeberation) nor 'haar ka hungama' (brouhaha overdefeat).

Former Union Minister Shahnawaz Hussain, who attended themeeting, said it was unanimously agreed that the Supreme Court verdict onAyodhya will be acceptable to all.