The criminal trial is to fix liability of those who conspired and brought down the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992The Uttar Pradesh government Friday informed the Supreme Court it had extended the tenure of the special judge Surendra Kumar Yadav, who is conducting the trial in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and Surya Kant perused the affidavit and office memo placed before it by the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh.
Senior advocate Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the state, told the bench it had complied with the top court’s direction and extended the tenure of the special judge till he delivers the judgment in the case.
Last month, the top court had directed the state government to issue orders on the extension of tenure of the special judge and to consider his request including providing security to him. The development came after the judge, in a letter, appealed for protection.
The criminal trial, to fix liability of those who conspired and brought down the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, covers two separate cases — FIR No. 198 against senior BJP leader L K Advani and seven leaders of the Sangh Parivar, including Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, for making incendiary speeches; and FIR No. 197 against “lakhs of unknown kar sevaks” for tearing down the mosque. The kar sevaks also face charges of dacoity, promoting enmity between religions, robbery and rioting.
Like the civil case, which the SC is hearing five days a week (breaking a convention), this criminal case too has been “fast-tracked” several times by the apex court. It now has a time limit of April 2020.
Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. Babri Masjid was demolished by right-wing activists on December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya, leading to the protracted legal battle.
