Speaking for the bench, the CJI asked senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan to take the lead in preparing the schedule after consulting all counsels With two months remaining for his retirement, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday insisted on a time schedule for proceeding further with the case, as without it, the five-judge bench would be short of time to prepare its historic verdict. Speaking for the bench, the CJI asked senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan to take the lead in preparing the schedule after consulting all counsels. The trigger came when Dhavan requested for a week-off on Friday. To the plea, the CJI said, "It's about time that all parties decide upon a calendar fixing the schedule of arguments. Only then we can consider on which day you can take the day off. We want to know how many days we have to write the judgment." TICKING CLOCK Seven lawyers for the Hindu side took 11 days while the Nirmohi Akhara took 4 days. Muslim side has so far taken 9 days; 3 more lawyers to follow Dhavan volunteered to do the same although he insisted on taking off this Friday due to the intense pressure he faced by remaining awake for case preparation till 2 am in the night. In a lighter vein, the bench remarked, "If lawyers can take a day off, why shouldn't we?" But the bench's anxiety was palpable as the day-to-day hearing of the case that begun on August 6 had entered Day 25. If one is to assume that the arguments are to conclude by October 31, beginning Wednesday, the court only has 22 working days. What has raised concern with the bench is also the fact that the judgment needs to be given before November 17 when CJI is to retire.