New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday gave nine months to a special judge of Lucknow to decide the politically sensitive Babri Mosque demolition conspiracy case.
BJP veterans Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and former union minister and ex-MP chief minister Uma Bharti are among those accused of conspiring to raze the mosque in December 1992.
The Bench of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Surya Kant gave the ruling on an application by special judge Surendra Kumar Yadav which said he is due for retirement on September 30 and needs extension of six months if he has to pronounce the verdict.
Noting that Yadav, who is a district and sessions judge, has made substantial pro-gress in the trial, the Bench said his plea for extension for delivering the judgment has merit.
The ruling came after the Uttar Pradesh government agreed to give extension to the judge to complete the task bestowed upon him by the Apex Court.
The Court had sought the state government's stand on Monday on the judge's plea for extension. Let the trial be completed in six months and a judgment be delivered in another three months, the court said. It also observed that it wants the special judge to continue and deliver the judgment even if it takes two more years.
The top court had on April 19, 2017, allowed the CBI's application to restore criminal conspiracy charges against Advani and others and ordered a day-to-day trial to be concluded in two years, transferring the trial from Rae Bareli to Lucknow and ruling that "there shall be no transfer of the judge conducting the trial until the entire trial concludes."
