Babri Masjid case: Supreme Court to hear CBI's plea on December 12

The Supreme Court today said it will hear on December 12 the appeal of CBI against dropping of conspiracy charge against senior BJP leader L K Advani and 19 others in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

A bench headed by Justice H L Dattu said that it would accord "full hearing" to the matter on December 12. The court, on September 3, had preponed by about two months the date of hearing in the case, which was earlier fixed in December, on the plea of the CBI. It was not opposed by the counsel for Advani.

The case was filed by CBI challenging Allahabad High Court's verdict on dropping conspiracy charge against Advani and 19 others in Babri Masjid demolition case. The apex court had earlier pulled up CBI for the delay in filing an appeal against the Allahabad High Court verdict.

CBI had filed an appeal in the apex court challenging the verdicts of a special CBI court and the Allahabad High Court dropping conspiracy charge against Advani, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Murli Manohar Joshi. The others against whom the charge was dropped included Satish Pradhan, C R Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambhara, V H Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhynath, R V Vedanti, Param Hans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B L Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save.

Bal Thackeray's name was removed from the list of accused persons after his death.

CBI has challenged in the Supreme Court the May 21, 2010 order of the high court, which had upheld a special court's decision to drop the charge against the leaders. The high court at that time, however, had allowed CBI to proceed with other charges against Advani and others in a Rae Bareily court, under whose jurisdiction the case falls.