Advani: Babri respite

New Delhi, Feb. 12: The Babri Masjid demolition case against L.K. Advani and seven other Sangh parivar leaders will go on separately in a Rae Bareli court without conspiracy charges.

The final legal effort to get them tried in Lucknow with the rest of the accused - 47 kar sevaks - failed today with the Supreme Court rejecting a petition to transfer the Rae Bareli case.

Had the two cases been merged in Lucknow, the eight leaders too would have faced conspiracy charges like the kar sevaks.

“No person, much less the petitioners, (can) in public interest claim any special court at any particular place for trial of any particular criminal case,” a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said.

This is the fourth time the courts have upheld the separation of the trials. Aslam Bhure, who has been intervening in Babri demolition cases, had sought a review of the third of these orders, passed by the apex court in March 2007. His was a curative petition - the final chance to get a court judgment reviewed.

“The earlier order. does not require any re-consideration. There is no error apparent on the face of the record nor do the facts and circumstances warrant any interference with our earlier order,” the court said.

Apart from Advani, the accused leaders are former Union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Ritambhara.

They face the charges of rioting, unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between groups and making statements to cause public mischief - but not of conspiracy unlike the kar sevaks.

Two FIRs had been registered after the December 6, 1992, demolition. One named the 47 kar sevaks and the other the eight leaders. A special court framed the charges.

Allahabad High Court quashed the charges against the eight leaders in February 2001 on the ground that the case was transferred without consulting it. So, trial continued only against the kar sevaks.

Bhure then petitioned the Uttar Pradesh government for a fresh notification to revive the case against the eight, and for a joint trial in Lucknow.

The state later notified the eight’s trial in Rae Bareli. The apex court upheld that notification in November 2002. Bhure’s review petition was rejected in March 2007.