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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
The special designated Central Bureau of Investigation court will, on Tuesday, give its verdict on the plea from Home Minister L K Advani and others for a discharge in the eight year old Babri Masjid demolition case.
Besides Advani, other Bhartiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, Ashok Singhal, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Rithambara, Acharya Giriraj Kishore and 23 others had on Monday moved two separate applications for their discharge in the case.
They made the plea on the basis of a recent order of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court.
The verdict passed by Justice Jagdish Bhalla on February 12 had invalidated the notification of October 8, 1993, whereby the government had sought to amend its earlier notification of September 9, 1993, to include the names of Advani and seven others for purposes of trial by the special court constituted through the earlier notification.
Due process of law, which prescribes formal consultation with the high court, had been followed in issuing the September 9 notification. But the government's lapse in seeking the mandatory concurrence of the high court before issuing the second notification of October 8, rendered it 'invalid'.
However, arguing before the special additional district and sessions judge S K Shukla , CBI counsel P K Chaube claimed that the recent high court order did not in any way drop the criminal case against Advani and others. He sought to point out that since a consolidated charge-sheet was filed against all the 49 accused persons, cases against eight persons out of these could not be dropped.
Chaube had pointed out that since the high court had clearly upheld the charge-sheets, the question of letting them off did not arise.
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