SC holds trial in Babri Masjid case at Rae Bareli as valid

New Delhi, Mar 22 (UNI) The Supreme Court today held there was no error in its earlier order approving trial by a Rae Bareli court of eight top Sangh Parivar members, including former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

A three-judge bench, comprising Justices K G Balakrishnan, R V Raveendran and G P Mathur, gave the ruling on a petition seeking revision of the Apex Court's verdict of 2002, upholding the Allahabad High Court order of transferring the case to a Rae Bareli court.

The revision was sought by Delhi-based citizen Mohammed Aslam alias Bhure who attempted to raise certain legal questions on separating the trial in the Babri Masjid demolition case into two cases and transferring one of them to Rae Bareli from Lucknow.

"There was no error in the order passed by the Supreme Court in its earlier order of 2002" the bench said. In the Babri Masjid demolition case, the CBI had registered two FIRs of which the first had the names of 49 Sangh Parivar activists and the second had eight top leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Ashok Singhal, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmia and Sadhvi Rithambara.

However, there was a basic difference between the two cases as the second FIR registered by the CBI after dismissal of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh in the wake of the December 6, 1992, demolition, did not contain the charge of conspiracy. A separate chargesheet was filed by the CBI in the Rae Bareli court also did contain the charge of criminal conspiracy under Section 120 B of the IPC.

Mr Advani was in September 2003 discharged in the case by the Rae Bareli court while framing charges against the other seven Sangh Parivar leaders. However, the trial court order was reversed by the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench in July 2005. The High court directed the trial court to proceed with the case against all the eight accused.

Now these leaders will face trial under Sections 149 which deals with offence of rioting, arson and creating public disorder -- and 505 which deals with creating ill-will between different communities -- of the IPC.

UNI