The Allahabad High Court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh will deliver its ruling on Thursday on who owns the site of the Babri Mosque in the town of Ayodhya which was destroyed by Hindu zealots in 1992, a court official said.

The government is extremely anxious about the potential for violence and has issued several public appeals for calm, as well as placing advertisements in national newspapers urging respect for the rule of law. The fight has shaken the core of modern India and led to repeated outbreaks of communal violence that killed thousands of people, mainly Muslims.

A lower court had been scheduled to issue its ruling in the 60-year-old case last Friday on whether the site should be given to the Hindu community to build a temple or returned to the Muslim community to rebuild the 16th-century mosque.

But the Supreme Court deferred that ruling so it could hear arguments Tuesday on whether a decision on the dispute, which dates back more than 150 years, should be delayed further to allow the two communities a chance to settle it amicably.

“I told the court during arguments that there was no chance of a settlement. The High Court should be allowed to pronounce its judgment,” said Zafaryab Jilani, a lawyer for the Sunni Waqf Board, a Muslim organization that was part of the original suit.

On Tuesday afternoon the court dismissed the motion without giving any reasons for its decision, said Mukul Rohatgi, a lawyer who argued for the delay. The case has been stuck in India's famously sluggish court system for so long that most of the original petitioners have died awaiting a decision.

The Allahabad High Court will issue its verdict Thursday afternoon, said Hari Shankar Dubey, a court official. The court was in a rush to announce the decision before one of the judges on the panel is set to retire at the end of the week, which could force the court to put together a new panel and hear the case from the beginning.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to people to maintain peace and harmony.

“I think whatever be the nature of the judgment, everyone should make every effort to maintain peace, harmony and tranquility in the country,” the Press Trust of India quoted Singh as saying in New Delhi.

The government fears that any verdict could set off a repeat of the communal violence that killed 2,000 people in nationwide rioting in 1992 after a mob of Hindu extremists descended on Ayodhya and tore down the mosque.

Ahead of the verdict, the government has sent thousands of extra police to Ayodhya and barred anyone from sending mass text messages to prevent agitators from mobilizing violent protests. Police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled the streets Tuesday and road barriers were erected across roads leading to the town.

The timing of the verdict is a major headache for the government as it struggles to salvage the Commonwealth Games, which have been plagued by mismanagement, corruption allegations and unfinished infrastructure.

“We welcome the decision of the Supreme Court. It has cleared the uncertainty that was there in the country,” a spokesman for the main Hindu nationalist opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said.

The High Court is set to answer three main questions, namely whether the disputed spot was Ram's birthplace, whether the mosque was built after the demolition of a temple and if the mosque had been built in accordance with the tenets of Islam.

Any ruling is likely to be challenged in the Supreme Court.