Update : Babri Masjid demolition case

A session judge who is hearing the joint trial of the dual Babri Masjid demolition cases has asked for six more months to finish the case. This has prompted the Supreme Court to request the Uttar Pradesh to suggest a way to resolve this dilemma.

What is happening?

• The Supreme Court had given a trial judge two years (April 2017-2019) to complete the trial after reviving the criminal conspiracy charge against BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders, including L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Uma Bharti.
• The leaders were charged in connection with the demolition of the 16th-century mosque on December 6, 1992.
• There are two separate cases with this. A Rae Bareilly case accuses the BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders of having given speeches to promote enmity and threatened national integration. A separate case in Lucknow which was investigated by the CBI, is against lakhs of unknown kar sevaks and deals with the actual act of demolition and violence.
• The Supreme Court had admonished the authorities for their lax attitude with handling such a sensitive case and transferred the Rae Bareilly case to the CBI court in Lucknow for a joint trial.
• It had ordered the Lucknow court to hold a day to day trail, forbade the transfer of the judge and any other reasons of adjournment.
• However, the sessions judge is due to retire in September and the trial is yet to near its rightful conclusion.

How did this happen?

Under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution, the Supreme Court is authorized to bring the cases to justice when it believes that justice has been delayed for too long.