The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, August 6, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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HC stays proceedings in Ayodhya case
Tribune News Service and PTI

Lucknow, August 5
The Allahabad High Court today passed an interim order staying till September 24 the proceedings in the special CBI court trying Ayodhya demolition cases against 26 accused, including Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.

Mr Justice N.K. Mehrotra of the high court’s Lucknow Bench passed the order on two petitions filed by the CBI and the then District Magistrate of Faizabad R.N. Srivastava praying for a stay on the proceedings in the special CBI court.

The court directed the special court to fix a date after September 24 for further hearing on the matter.

The special CBI court had earlier fixed August 6 for hearing on the matter.

The CBI and Mr Srivastava had filed revision petitions in the high court challenging the May 4, 2001 order of the special CBI court by which it had quashed proceedings against 13 accused persons, including Mr Advani and Mr Joshi.

The then special CBI Judge, Mr Srikant Shukla, had bifurcated the two chargesheets, bearing numbers 197/92 and 198/92, and quashed proceedings against the 13 accused persons after the Allahabad High Court struck down the government notification transferring FIR number 198/92 to the special court on the ground that the concurrence of the high court was not obtained for doing so.

The special Judge had ordered that the CBI, which had filed a joint chargesheet clubbing both 197/92 and 198/92, could carry on with 197/92.

It may be mentioned here that while FIR number 197/98 was against unknown kar sevaks, the 198/92 was against eight accused persons including Mr Advani, Mr Joshi and BJP leader Uma Bharti.

The CBI and Mr Srivastava had challenged the special court’s order and had pleaded that the bifurcation of the joint chargesheet was not proper as it was the job of the prosecuting agency and not the court.

While the special CBI court here was trying 26 accused persons, 13 accused, including Mr Advani and Mr Joshi, were being tried by a Raebareilly court.

NEW DELHI: Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani today flayed the Opposition for making Ayodhya its whipping boy in the absence of any other issue even as several BJP MPs asked the government to act fast on Ram temple, uniform civil code and population control.

Chairing a Parliamentary Party meeting in the absence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr Advani said a final decision on the issue of synchronisation of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections would be taken only after wide consultations within the party, the government, the NDA and different political parties.

Mr Advani said the government would try to bring in the current session itself an amendment to the existing Anti-Defection Law which at present enabled legislators to defect in “wholesale but not individually.”

Another legislation would be on confining the size of the Council of Ministers in states to 10 per cent strength of the legislative Assembly, Mr Advani told the members.

No interference in CBI working, says PM
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today categorically stated in the Lok Sabha that neither he nor his officers had at any time interfered with the functioning of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Babri masjid demolition case.

“My government’s interference in the functioning of the CBI is limited to earmarking financial assistance in the Budget”, Mr Vajpayee remarked while replying to a nearly five-hour-long debate on the functioning of the CBI in the Babri masjid demolition case.

Mr Vajpayee said the CBI had the full right and responsibility to independently investigate and proceed and it was the responsibility of the CBI to decide who was to be prosecuted and under what rules.

The Prime Minister, who was present throughout during the debate, said the government did not play any role in the functioning of the CBI.

Earlier, the Opposition had put the government in the dock on the issue of the CBI’s conduct in the Babri masjid demolition case and said the continuation of chargesheeted ministers in the Union Cabinet was an “unhealthy precedent”. The charge was denied by BJP members who said the CBI was also “influenced” by erstwhile Congress governments at the Centre.

Mr P.R. Dasmunshi (Congress) initiated the debate on the working of the CBI. He said though there was no rule to seek removal of two ministers from the Union Cabinet. Mr Vajpayee was setting an “unhealthy precedent” by allowing Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, chargesheeted by the CBI, to continue as ministers.