The Hindu : National : CBI seeks clubbing of Masjid cases

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 28, 2006

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CBI seeks clubbing of Masjid cases

Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI : The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday pleaded before the Supreme Court to direct clubbing of all cases relating to the Babri Masjid demolition for hearing at a court in Lucknow, instead of at Lucknow and Rae Bareli courts.

Additional Solicitor General, Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the CBI made this submission before a three-judge Bench, comprising K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice D.K. Jain, during the course of hearing of a review petition challenging the dropping of the "conspiracy" charge against Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, in the case pending before a Rae Bareli special court.

No consensus

The hearing assumed importance since the Allahabad High Court had passed an order last year directing Mr. Advani to face trial in the case. But as there was no consensus among counsel to a suggestion from the Bench that they should approach the Allahabad High Court seeking appropriate orders, the matter stood adjourned without specifying any date.

The Bench was hearing a petition filed by Mohd. Aslam alias Bhure seeking review of the apex court's November 2002 order permitting the trial to go on in a Rae Bareli court instead of at Lucknow. Mr. Bhure had also filed an application questioning the deletion of "conspiracy" charge in the supplementary charge sheet. Besides, the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh Government, the petitioner had cited former Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadvi Ritambara and Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar as respondents.

Mr. Subramaniam submitted that the CBI wanted all the three cases to be clubbed and heard in one court in Lucknow, as it was a composite charge sheet against all the 49 accused. When the Bench said the CBI could file an application in this regard before the High Court, he said that since the matter was pending in the apex court no steps were taken for clubbing the cases. He wanted the Bench to pass an order clarifying the position.

The Bench questioned the locus standi of the petitioner and said the pendency of this case in this court had resulted in delay in the disposal of the demolition cases, which were nearly 15 years old. It said a third party could not have any interest in a criminal case. However, senior counsel O.P. Sharma, appearing for Mr. Bhure traced the sequence of events and said that he wanted to argue on the legal issues.

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