New Delhi: As per the media reports emerging from the capital the Supreme Court of India here today was to decide as to whether senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, among others, should face trial in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. But instead the hearing has now been postponed until tomorrow due to the non availability of Justice Rohinton Nariman.
The decision has came to the stark contrast as to what the SCI had stated earlier this month that it was concerned with pace of the proceedings in this case and wanted a joint trial by clubing the Raebareli and Lucknow cases. Coincidentally it was Justice Nariman who had made the above said comment.
Furthermore, KK Venupgopal, who appeared for L.K Advani and others, today sought more time from the court to filed documents relating to the case. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is prosecuting the case, urged that the matter be taken up tomorrow itself.
The Supreme Court of India is hearing an appeal that was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation on 18th February 2011 against an Allahabad High Court order quashing conspiracy charges against Advani, Joshi, Bharti, then UP Chief Minister and present Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh and other BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders.
There are two cases going on the matter relating to the 1992 demolition of the 16th century Babri mosque in Ayodhya – one in Lucknow and the other in Raebareli, that were suggested by the SCI to be clubbed together so as to speed up the trail in these aforesaid pending cases.
A Raebareli court had earlier acquitted Advani and a dozen others off the conspiracy charges, which were filed the Central Bureau of Investigation in a supplementary charge sheet, notes India Today in its report.
The CBI, which is prosecuting both the Lucknow and Raebareli cases, appealed the Raebareli decision to the Allahabad High Court, which upheld the lower court’s verdict. The premier investigative agency then took the matter to the Supreme Court. On March 6, the apex court indicated it was not in favour of the conspiracy charges being dropped and also suggested that it would order clubbing of the two trials, said a report published in the English vernacular.