Supreme Court seeks report by judge in Babri Masjid demolition case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a report from the Lucknow sessions judge on how he intends to complete the trial in the Babri Masjid demolition case involving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and others by April 2019.

A bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Indu Malhotra also sought the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Uttar Pradesh government to the petition filed by trial court judge S.K. Yadav, whose promotion was stayed by the Allahabad high court on the ground that the apex court had directed him to complete the trial before April 2019.

In April 2017, the apex court ordered the revival of the ‘conspiracy’ charge against Mr Advani and others after 25 years in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case in Ayodhya and directed the completion of the trial in two years.

The court had said in the present case, crimes, which shake the secular fabric of the Constitution, had allegedly been committed almost 25 years ago.

In this case the CBI maintained that the criminal conspiracy of felling the disputed structure was commenced by Mr Advani from 1990, when he kicked off the ‘rath yatra’ and it was completed on December 6, 1992.

The CBI said Mr Advani and other BJP leaders at different times and at different places hatched criminal conspiracies to demolish the disputed structure.

It said the ccused have not been brought to book largely because of the conduct of the CBI in not pursuing the prosecution of the aforesaid alleged offenders in a joint trial, and because of technical defects which were easily curable, but which were not cured by the Uttar Pradesh government, the apex court said and asked the trial court to complete the trial in two years.