The apex court was hearing a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging their discharge by the Allahabad high court in the Babri Masjid demolition conspiracy case.
The apex court asked them to spell out their stands on a CBI plea for restoration of charges of hatching a criminal conspiracy in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. A bench of justices V S Sirpurkar and T S Thakur sought to know their stands on the issue and asked them to file their replies within four weeks.
The SC bench of Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice T.S. Thakur issued the notice after Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam pressed the investigating agency’s petition finding fault with the high court verdict.
Advani and 20 others were discharged by the Allahabad high court May 20, 2010 in a case in which they were accused of conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid that led to widespread communal violence across the country.
Challenging the High Court order, the CBI in its petition to apex court said that it appeared an artificial distinction was made by the trial court attempting to assign a role in respect of each of the accused persons and to see which offences were made out.
The trial court erroneously came to the conclusion that 21 persons were not entitled to be tried in the case (pertaining to the demolition on 6th December 1992).
“The order passed by the High Court results in serious miscarriage of justice, violates the principle of consolidated investigation, consolidated charge sheet and also disables an effective trial,” the petition underlined.
