The Supreme Court on July 15 asked the Uttar Pradesh government to suggest a way out after the sessions judge hearing the joint trial of the dual Babri Masjid demolition cases sought six months more to finish the case.
On April 19, 2017, the Supreme Court gave the trial judge two years to complete the trial after reviving criminal conspiracy charges against BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders, including L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, in connection with the demolition of the 16th century mosque on December 6, 1992.
The Supreme Court had evoked the maxim — “Let justice be done though the heavens fall” — to flex its extraordinary constitutional powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to bring the cases to justice.
Now, the trial is yet to be completed and the sessions judge is due to retire on September 30. A Bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has scheduled a hearing on Friday.
In 2017, the Supreme Court extolled its “power, nay, the duty to do complete justice in a case when found necessary. In the present case, crimes which shake the secular fabric of the Constitution of India have allegedly been committed almost 25 years ago” on a 40-page judgment. It transferred the Rae Bareilly case, languishing in a magistrate court, to the CBI court in Lucknow for a joint trial. The court ordered the Lucknow CBI court judge to hold day-to-day trial and pronounce the judgment in two years. It forbade the transfer of the judge and also adjournments. Any grievances, the Bench said, should directly be addressed to the Supreme Court. Its directions had to be complied in letter and in spirit, the court cautioned.
