The other Ayodhya Case that is up for judgment soon

New Delhi, Nov 09: As the Supreme Court readies itself to pronounce the Ayodhya Verdict, it must be remembered that there is another case relating to this subject that is pending.

The case pertaining to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6 1992 is in its final stage before a special CBI court in Lucknow.

Following the demolition the case was handed over to the CB-CID wing of the Uttar Pradesh police. Later the government transferred the cases to the CBI. The CBI chargesheeted 40 persons in the 49 causes and submitted the same to a special court in the year 1993.

In 1996, the CBI filed supplementary chargesheet in which it named 9 more persons. The total number of accused then stood at 49.

In 1997, the special court held that there was a prima facie case to file charges. After the court said that the formal charges would be framed, the accused moved the Allahabad High Court.

In 2001, the HC said that it found no illegality in the joint single chargesheet. However it pointed towards an administrative lapse by the UP government. This was relating to a notification of the trial court under crime number 198/92 relating to the hate speech case against L K Advani and others. While upholding framing of charges in 48 cases, it denied the same in the case number 198 against Advani, Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Vinay Katiyar and others.

The Lucknow court dropped proceedings in this case, following which the CBI wrote to the UP government to rectify the error. The HC had said that the faulty order of the government was curable. It held that the faulty notification for fixing the trial court dated October 8 1993 could be cured by the way of another notification.

As no notification was issued, the CBI moved the Raebareli court requesting that case 198 be taken up. The court however discharged Advani in the case, but ordered framing of charges against the rest.

The High Court however reversed this order, following which the Raebareli court framed charges. Owing to several legal hurdles, the CBI moved the Supreme Court in 2012. IN 2017, the SC ruled against the order of the Allahabad HC of dropping conspiracy charges. It ordered the invoking of conspiracy charges against Advani and others.

The case is currently in the final stages and a verdict on the same could be expected soon.