The Supreme Court on Friday took exception to the counsel for the Centre referring to the Babri Masjid demolition as a “famous case” and asked him to refrain from giving the unfortunate incident such adjectives. BJP leader L.K. Advani and other senior BJP and Sangh leaders, meanwhile, questioned the CBI’s move to slap criminal conspiracy charges against them.
As a senior law officer of the government introduced the CBI’s plea with the statement that it related to the “famous” Babri Masjid demolition case, a bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and C.K. Prasad shot back: “What is famous about it? It was only an incident which happened and the parties are before us. It is not famous or infamous.”
Since most parties had not submitted their reply affidavits to the top court’s notice of March 4, 2011 on the CBI’s special leave petition challenging the Allahabad high court order rejecting its plea for slapping a criminal conspiracy charge against Mr Advani and 20 other BJP and Sangh leaders, the bench posted further hearing on the agency’s appeal for March 17.
Meanwhile, Mr Advani and some senior BJP leaders, in a joint affidavit, challenged the CBI’s SLP, accusing the agency of attempting to revive an issue that has already been settled by the Supreme Court in its March 22, 2007 judgment.