The Supreme Court has described the demolition of the Babri Masjid as ‘a serious violation of the rule of law’.
New Delhi: With the Supreme Court, while delivering the judgement in the Ayodhya case on Saturday, describing the December 1992 destruction of the Babri Masjid as “an egregious violation of the rule of law” and “a serious violation of the rule of law”, the focus has now shifted to the criminal cases that are going on in the Special CBI court in Lucknow.
In April 2017, the Supreme Court had ordered that the trial in the case where BJP stalwarts, including L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara and Uma Bharti, were accused of demolishing the structure, should be done on a day-to-day basis and it should be completed within two years.
However, the Supreme Court was forced to extend the two-year time limit by nine months as the evidence of the witnesses was not completed and now it is expected that the trial will be completed by early next year.
One reason for extending the time limit was the fact that one of the accused, Kalyan Singh, was the Governor of Rajasthan and the proceedings in his case could only start after his immunity ended in September 2019, once his term as Governor ended.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian from Lucknow on Saturday, CBI’s counsel M. Haque said that the proceedings in the case were in its last stage.
“292 witnesses have already been examined. There were 357 witnesses in the original list; many have passed away and some have been discharged. Now, the evidence related to Kalyan Singh is happening and 10 witnesses have already been examined. The tenure of the judge hearing the case, who retired on 30 September, has already been extended for the purpose of this trial,” Haq said. According to him, once the examination of the witnesses from the prosecution ends, the defence, too, can ask for cross-examination of them. “The case is in its last stage,” he added.
On 19 April 2017, the Supreme Court bench of Justices R.F. Nariman and Justice P.C. Ghose had ordered day-to-day trial to be concluded in the case within two years. The apex court, while passing the order, had dubbed the demolition of the medieval era monument as a “crime” which shook the “secular fabric of the Constitution” while allowing the CBI’s plea on restoration of criminal conspiracy charge against the VVIPs accused that included Advani.
The court had at the time come down heavily on CBI for the delay of 25 years in the trial while stating that: “The accused persons 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 state government.”
The Supreme Court had also stated: “The sessions court will complete the trial and deliver the judgement within a period of two years from the date of receipt of this judgement.”
Besides the three leaders, the accused, against whom the conspiracy charge under Section 120-B (conspiracy) is being tried include Vinay Katiar, Sadhvi Ritambara, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, Champat Rai Bansal, Satish Pradhan, Dharam Das, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahamadleshwar Jagdish Muni, Ram Bilas Vadanti, Vaikunth Lal Sharma and Satish Chandra Nagar.
The case is being heard in Court no 8 of the old High Court building in Lucknow and is being presided by Special CBI Judge S.K. Yadav. Among those who have appeared as prosecution witness include close to 20 journalists, including Mark Tully.