Supreme Court orders LK Advani, MM Joshi be tried on criminal conspiracy charges in Babri case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ordered that BJP leaders LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharati be tried in a Lucknow court in a criminal conspiracy case for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. The charges dropped on technical grounds against the BJP leaders would be revived in four weeks in a Lucknow court.

The others to be tried are Sadhvi Rithamabara, VH Dalmia and Vinay Katiyar. Kalyan Singh, who was UP CM when the demolition took place, figures in the list but enjoys immunity as governor from civil or criminal action. Charges against him will be revived after he demits office. Some of the accused are dead and hence will not be tried, including Giriraj Kishor, Ashok Singhal, Mahant Avaidyanath and Ramchandra Paramhans.

Advani and Joshi resisted the move to revive the charges and transfer the case to Lucknow on the grounds that their advancing years would not permit them to face a trial there. "It would be difficult to climb four storeys," Advani’s lawyer KK Venugopal said opposing trial at the Lucknow court.

Speaking on behalf of Advani, he asked: "Is it CBI’s case that I conspired with lakhs of kar sevaks? If there was a meeting of minds, where did it happen?" A bench comprising justices PC Ghose and RF Nariman brushed aside the objections and ordered that all cases be transferred from Rae Bareli and tried at Lucknow, where kar sevaks responsible for the demolition are being tried.

The bench said the technical defect pointed out by the Allahabad HC on February 12, 2001, should have been corrected soon after the judgement for a joint trial to go ahead. "This, however, did not happen, because the CBI did not challenge the rejection of the request to cure this technical defect.

Instead the course taken by the CBI has caused great confusion." The filing of the supplementary charge sheet against eight accused persons going on separately at Rae Bareli and the dropping of charges against 13 accused persons, after the judgment… has completely derailed the joint trial envisaged and has resulted in a fractured prosecution going on in two places."

The judge will not be transferred till trial concludes. "One disturbing feature is the fact that the special judge designated by the notification to carry on the trial at Rae Bareli has been transferred a number of times, as a result of which the matter could not be taken up on dates fixed," Nariman said.

There will be fresh trial but it will continue from where it was left off and continue daily until trial concludes. "The case shall not be adjourned on any ground except when the sessions court finds it impossible to carry on the trial for that particular date," the court said.