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HC rejects PIL on Ayodhya case

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Monday rejected a Public Interest Litigation seeking a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to issue a fresh notification in the Ayodhya case to reverse trial of several accused including Union ministers L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti by a special court.

Disposing off the PIL, a division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Sen and Justice A N Trivedi held that the court could not issue a mandamus against the state government for rectifying the defect in respect of constitution of the special court through a government notification issued on September 9, 1993.

Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh said the court's refusal to give a direction vindicated his government's stand on the issue.

The court observed that it was the Central Bureau of Investigation, the prosecuting agency, which was the appropriate forum to decide on this issue and proceed in accordance with the law.

"The CBI is at liberty to choose the appropriate forum to proceed in the case in accordance with law," the bench held.

The petitioners have no right to choose any specific court for conducting the case relating to the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya," they held.

The court also observed that the case had not come to an end but it was up to the CBI to decide which forum it wanted to proceed.

The PIL was filed by journalist and Rajya Sabha MP Kuldip Nayar, social activist Swami Agnivesh and lawyer and columnist A G Noorani.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh Advocate General R P Goel submitted that the court could not issue mandamus on the issuance of the notification in the Ayodhya case.

"The case crime number 198 of 1992 was well investigated by the state CB-CID before being handed over to the CBI for further investigation and now it was left to CBI to proceed in the case in accordance with the law," Goel said in his submission.

"The CBI is the right agency to take appropriate decision in the matter in accordance with the tenets of law," Goel argued further.

The counsel for the petitioners, Atul Setlvad, Abdul Mannan and Zafaryab Jilani, however, pleaded that the persons accused in the particular case crime number should not escape conviction or trial on technical grounds.

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