The Supreme Court has given a court hearing the Babri Masjid demolition case against several accused persons, including prominent BJP leaders like L.K. Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, time till September 30 to complete the trial and deliver its verdict.
A three-judge Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman allowed a request made by Special Judge S.K. Yadav for more time. The deadline was August 31.
The Bench noted that the trial was drawing to a close and a month more would be sufficient to complete the proceedings and deliver the judgment.
The BJP and the Sangh Parivar leaders are accused of criminal conspiracy which led to the demolition of the 16th century mosque by kar sevaks in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
In 2017, the apex court had invoked the maxim — “Let justice be done though the heavens fall” — to flex its extraordinary constitutional powers under Article 142 to bring the case to justice.
The apex court had transferred the Rae Bareilly case, languishing in a Magistrate court, to the CBI Court in Lucknow for a joint trial.
The Rae Bareilly case accuses the BJP and the Sangh Parivar leaders of delivering hate speeches.
The Lucknow case, investigated by the CBI, is against “lakhs of unknown kar sevaks” and deals with the actual act of demolition and violence. With the clubbing of the cases and revival of the conspiracy charge, the accused political leaders are being tried under a composite chargesheet filed by the CBI on October 5, 1993.
