The Supreme Court on Monday asked additional sessions judge S.K. Yadav, who is hearing the Babri Masjid demolition cases against top BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders like L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and “lakhs of unknown kar sevaks”, to explain how he intends to complete the trial by April 2019, the stipulated deadline given by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had on April 19, 2017, revived the criminal conspiracy charge against the top BJP leaders and transferred their case, languishing in the magistrate court at Rae Bareilly, to the additional sessions court (Ayodhya matters) in Lucknow.
In the Rae Bareilly case, the BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders are accused of having given speeches to promote enmity and threatening national integration.
Pending for 26 years
The sessions judge in Lucknow is now jointly trying the Rae Bareilly case with that against kar sevaks who destroyed the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and unleashed violence. Both cases have been pending for the past 26 years.
The Supreme Court had further ordered charges to be framed against former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, who was the Rajasthan Governor at the time in April 2017.
The court said Mr. Singh should face charges as soon as he ‘ceases’ to be Governor.
In its 40-page judgment in April 2017, the Supreme Court had invoked its extraordinary constitutional powers under Article 142. It had evoked the maxim — ‘Let justice be done though the heavens fall.’
Besides the two-year deadline, the apex court had barred the transfer of the Sessions Judge until the entire trial was concluded. The case was to be taken up on a day-to-day basis. Adjournment would be granted only if the Sessions Judge found it “impossible” to carry on the trial on a particular date.
“We want to know how the Additional District Judge is going to complete the trial within the time limit stated by this Court,” a Bench of Justices Rohinton F. Nariman and Indu Malhotra recorded in its order on Monday.
The Bench asked Judge Yadav to file his report in a sealed cover. He has, in fact, approached the Supreme Court with an application against the recent Allahabad High Court order staying his promotion.
The High Court stayed his promotion citing the Supreme Court order of April 2017. The Bench led by Justice Nariman issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the application filed by Judge Yadav.
PTI adds...
Two sets of cases
There were two sets of cases relating to the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992. The first involved unnamed ‘karsevaks’, the trial of which is taking place in a Lucknow court, while the second set of cases relate to the leaders in a Rae Bareli court.
The apex court had ordered clubbing of the separate trials in the trial courts of Raebareli and Lucknow should be clubbed, to be conducted in Lucknow.
The conspiracy charge against 13 accused including Mr. Advani, Mr. Joshi and Ms. Bharti was dropped in the case, the trial of which was being held at a special court in Rae Bareli.
The second set of case was against unknown ‘karsevaks’ who were in and around the disputed structure and had pulled it down. The trial against them was being held in a Lucknow court.
The appeals were filed by one Haji Mahboob Ahmad (since dead) and the CBI against dropping of conspiracy charges against 21 accused including the top BJP leaders, eight of whom have died.
A supplementary charge sheet was filed against eight persons, but not the 13 who were discharged for plotting the demolition.
Conspiracy charges dropped
Besides BJP leaders Mr. Advani, Mr. Joshi and Ms. Bharti, conspiracy charges were dropped against Kalyan Singh (currently the Governor of Rajasthan), Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore (both have since died).
The others against whom the conspiracy charge was dropped include Vinay Katiyar, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Satish Pradhan, C.R. Bansal, Ashok Singhal (now deceased), Sadhvi Ritambhara, Mahant Avaidhynath (now deceased), R.V. Vedanti, Paramhans Ram Chandra Das (now deceased), Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B.L. Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save (now deceased).
The appeals have sought setting aside of the Allahabad High Court’s order of May 20, 2010, dropping section 120B (criminal conspiracy) under the IPC while upholding a special court’s decision.
The CBI had chargesheeted Mr. Advani and 20 others under sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (false statements, rumours etc circulated with the intent to cause mutiny or disturb public peace) of the IPC.
It had subsequently invoked charges under section 120B (criminal conspiracy), which was quashed by the special court whose decision was upheld by the high court.
While upholding the special court’s order, the high court had said the CBI at no point of time, either during the trial at Rae Bareily or in its revision petition, had ever stated that there was offence of criminal conspiracy against the leaders.
