When the Babri matter came up for hearing, Justice Ghose said the case may be adjourned. “My brother [J. Nariman] is not there. The case is part-heard,” he remarked.
Senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, for Mr. Advani, asked that the case be listed after four weeks.
“That would be in May...” Justice Ghose said. The judge is retiring on May 27 this year.
Justice Ghose then agreed to hear the matter on March 23, indicating that Justice Nariman may return to the Bench.
Court’s disapproval
The sudden turn of events on March 6 came on an appeal in the Supreme Court filed by the CBI in 2011, during the UPA era, against dropping the conspiracy charge against Mr. Advani and other leaders like Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Vinay Katiyar, Sadvi Ritambara, Giriraj Kishore and Vishnu Hari Dalmia.
“We prima-facie do not approve of the way these people have been discharged... And no additional chargesheet filed so far? See, people cannot be discharged like this on technical grounds,” Justice Nariman had observed orally then.
“We will allow you [CBI] to file supplementary chargesheet by including the conspiracy charge,” he said. “We will ask the trial court to conduct a joint trial in a Lucknow court.”
The FIRs in the Babri Masjid demolition cases were registered shortly after the 16th century structure was demolished by Hindu kar sewaks on December 6, 1992.
