M A I N   N E W S

No new notification on Babri

Lucknow, September 17
In a significant political decision, the BSP-BJP coalition government in Uttar Pradesh said today that there was neither any justification nor necessity for issuing a fresh notification in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid case in which Union Ministers L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti are among the accused.

Addressing a hurriedly summoned press conference here, Chief Minister Mayawati said her government had submitted its reply before the Supreme Court today as per its direction.

The Chief Minister said the CBI was free to proceed with the case in a competent court and her government had nothing to do with it.

Ms Mayawati said she was against constituting a special court to try any important person, as in her regime all were equal in the eyes of law. “I am of the view that the case should be pursued in an ordinary court, which in this instance is Faizabad”, she said. The Chief Minister said if the CBI still wanted to pursue the matter in a special court, it could do so by taking it in the special court constituted by the then government in Rai Bareilly.

The Chief Minister said the government had taken the decision not to issue a fresh notification after carefully going through all legal aspects of the case and obtaining the opinion of the Law Ministry.

No such fact, she said, had come to light after going through the Allahabad High Court’s order quashing the earlier notification which warranted issuance of a fresh notification.

Ms Mayawati said about 10 years had already lapsed since the demolition of the disputed structure and the case had been tried in different courts in the state without any decision and, therefore, at this stage her government did not deem it necessary to issue a fresh notification for the trial of Mr Advani, Mr Joshi, Ms Uma Bharti and others.

She said the defective notification was issued by the then Governor Mr Motilal Vora, “ignoring the opinion of legal experts and his adviser”. Passing the buck to the Congress, the Chief Minister said the notification was issued without obtaining prior concurrence of the high court and hence it was quashed by the court. PTI