Babri Masjid case: Supreme Court adjourns hearing till tomorrow

New Delhi, March 22 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused senior BJP leader LK Advani’s plea to adjourn hearing on petitions challenging a trial court’s decision to drop criminal conspiracy charges against him and several other BJP and other Hindu right-wing leaders in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
Senior counsel KK Venugopal requested a Bench of Justice PC Ghose and Justice Deepak Gupta on behalf of Advani that the matter should be heard after four weeks.
“So, you want it to be heard after May,” asked Justice Ghose who is due to retire on May 27.
“No, it can be heard in the first week of May,” replied Venugopal.
Justice Ghose said the case would be heard on Thursday when he would be sitting with Justice RF Nariman.
It was the Bench of Justice Ghose and Justice Nariman that had heard it on March 6.
Sixteen years after a Lucknow Special Court dropped the charge of criminal conspiracy against senior BJP and VHP leaders in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case on a technical ground, the saffron leaders may be in for some legal trouble as the Supreme Court has indicated that it might revive it.
“People cannot be discharged like this on a technical ground,” a Bench headed by Justice PC Ghose had said on March 6. It had hinted at allowing CBI to file a supplementary chargesheet against them.The top court is seized of CBI’s petition challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court order upholding the trial court’s order to discharge senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and other. The case against Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore has abated following their death.