Allahabad HC rejects revision petition in Babri demolition case

Lucknow, July 19: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has said that the revision petition filed against the acquittal of all 32 accused persons, including former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, senior BJP leaders -- Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh -- in Babri mosque demolition case was not maintainable and hence directed its office to convert and treat the revision as criminal appeal.

The Court has fixed August 1 as the next date of hearing.

The order came from a bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh.

The matter was earlier fixed on July 11, 2022, but the lawyers for revisionists sought adjournment.

The bench had agreed but fixed Monday with caution to the revisionists' lawyers that it would not adjourn the hearing on Monday on any of their pleas.

The petition was filed by two Ayodhya residents -- Haji Mahmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad.

The two petitioners claimed in the petition that they were witnesses in the trial against the accused persons and alleged victims owing to demolition of the disputed structure.

The Babri mosque was demolished by 'Karsevaks' on December 6, 1992.

After a long legal battle, the special CBI court on September 30, 2020, pronounced the judgment in the criminal trial and acquitted all the accused.

The trial judge had refused to believe newspaper articles, video clips as evidence as the originals of the same were not produced, while the entire edifice of the case rested on pieces of documentary evidence.

The trial judge also held that the CBI could not produce any evidence that the accused had a meeting of mind with 'Karsevaks' who demolished the disputed structure.