The Supreme Court has extended the deadline to September 30, 2020 for the CBI to deliver its judgment in the Babri Masjid demolition case for facing criminal charges against BJP leaders such as LK Advani, MM joshi, Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh.
BJP veterans LK Advani, MM joshi, Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh and 13 others are facing charges of criminal conspiracy behind the demolition of Babri Masjid in December, 1992. On April 19, 2017, the Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices P C Ghose and R F Nariman had restored the conspiracy charged against the accused by allowing an appeal filed by the CBI against the discharge given by the Allahabad High Court to the accused.
Invoking its extraordinary constitutional powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the bench transferred the pending separate trial in Rae Bareilly Magistrate court and clubbed it with criminal proceedings in Lucknow CBI Court.
The bench comprising of Justices Rohinton Nariman, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee decided to extend the time given to Special Judge, Sirendra Kumar Yadav, to arrive at a verdict after he submitted a progress report appraising the court that the proceedings were near completion.
The court had then observed that the destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992 was a violation of law. The act of placing idols beneath the central dome of the mosque in 1949 was an act of “desecration”.
