Babri: SC slaps notices on Advani, Bal Thackeray

The Supreme Court on Friday slapped notices on veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, along with 18 others, in the Babri Masjid demoliton case.

On Feb 18, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had moved the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court challenging the dropped charges of criminal conspiracy in the case.

The Allahabad High Court, on May 20, 2010, had dropped criminal charges against Advani, Thackeray, Joshi and others. The CBI challenged the verdict saying the decision was ?miscarriage of justice?.

“The trial court erroneously came to the conclusion that 21 persons were not entitled to be tried in the case. The order passed by the high court results in serious miscarriage of justice…,” CBI had said in its petition.

Earlier, in September last year, treading cautiously on the communal minefield, a three-member Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court passed a verdict upholding the Hindu claim that the disputed site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, but ruled that the land would be divided into three parts with one third going to the Sunni Waqf Board and the other two parts to Nimrohi Akhra and the party representing Ramlala Virajman.

Over 2,000 people were killed in the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid by Hindu kar sevaks (religious volunteers) on December 6, 1992, who claimed the Masjid was built after demolishing a Ram temple in 1528.