The case will come up on March 22
The mandate of the people from five states of India—and where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stands in those polls—will be known on March 11. Eleven days after that the Supreme Court will give its verdict on whether two of the party’s Margdarshak Mandal members, ten others in the “family”, as well as some Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members will have to face conspiracy charges in the 1992 case of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The top party members who could be in the dock include former deputy prime minister and veteran leader, the 89-year-old Lal Krishna Advani; former Union minister and ex-president of the BJP, Murli Manohar Joshi; and Uma Bharati, the cabinet minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation.
This is a case that has been hanging fire for a long time and the apex court has expressed concern on this delay in dealing with the demolition by kar sevaks of this 16th century mosque in Ayodhya.
Advani was among those discharged in the case which is going on in a trial court in Lucknow. The Allahabad High Court had upheld this verdict of the lower court. The apex court heard the CBI’s appeal against this discharge on March 6 and set the March 22 date for a possible decision on whether to re-include them. The discharge of Advani and others were on “technical grounds” which the Supreme Court said it “won’t accept”.
Apart from the case on at the Lucknow court, there is another on in Rae Bareli. The apex court may decide to club the two together.
— By India Legal Bureau