Supreme Court extends deadline to complete Babri Masjid demolition trial

Supreme Court gives CBI judge time till September 20

The Supreme Court has fixed a fresh deadline of September 30 for the CBI judge in Lucknow to complete the trial against BJP veterans L K Advani, M M Joshi and others in the 1992 Babri demolition case.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee gave further one month's time to the judge for the purpose.

The court passed its order on August 19 on a request by Special CBI judge, Surendra Kumar Yadav.

"Having read the report of Yadav, Special Judge, and considering that the proceedings are at the fag end, we grant one month’s time, i.e., till 30th September, 2020, to complete the proceedings including delivery of judgement," the bench said.

Earlier the court had fixed August 30 to finish the trial and deliver the judgement.

The court had then asked the trial judge to use video conferencing for recording evidence and ensure the time frame was not breached further.

The top court had earlier extended the term of the judge and fixed the deadline of April 2020 for finishing the trial in the case.

On a letter received by the Special Judge to further extend the time, the bench said, "the effort must now be to complete the proceedings and deliver judgment latest by August 31, 2020."

The top court noted that on July 19, 2019, it had given six months time to complete recording of evidence and three more months to deliver the judgement.

"Despite nine months having expired, we still find that even the evidence is not yet completed. We may indicate that video conferencing facilities are available and should be used in order to complete all evidence," the bench said.

"It is up to the judge to control the proceedings in accordance with law so that inordinate delay that is beyond the time frame that we now give, is no longer breached," the bench added.

On April 19, 2017, the top court had ordered day-to-day proceedings to conclude the trial in the December 6, 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case within two years.

It had then dubbed the demolition of the medieval era monument as a "crime" which shook the "secular fabric of the Constitution".

Besides Advani, Joshi and Uma Bharti, the accused against whom conspiracy charge was invoked in the case included former BJP MP Vinay Katiar and Sadhvi Ritambara. Former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh is also one of the accused in the case.