M A I N   N E W S

High Court summons Advani in Babri case
Notice also to Joshi, Uma Bharti

Lucknow, January 18
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court today reissued notices to seven parties, including former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, in the Ayodhya demolition case on the revision petition filed by the CBI.

However, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh’s counsel B.B. Saxena appeared in the court on his behalf.

Earlier, the Bench had issued notices against all the 21 parties in the Ayodhya demolition case but out of them the issued notices were not served to Mr Advani, Mr Joshi, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti, VHP leader Ashok Singhal, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Mr Moreshwar Save and Acharya Giriraj Kishore.

Therefore, the court reissued notices against them today based on a revision petition filed by the CBI in the case and also directed to publish them in the newspapers.

The court listed the case for next hearing on February 25.

Earlier, when the Bench had issued notices against the 21 parties, the counsels of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, Satish Pradhan, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Mahant Avaidyanath, Ramvilas Vedanti, Mahamandaleshwar Jagdish Muni, Vaikunth Lal Sharma and Mahant Nrityagopal Das had appeared before the court.

The CBI had filed revision petition challenging the decision of the special judge on Ayodhya matters of May 4, 2001, in which the Judge had terminated the prosecution proceedings against the 21 parties. — UNI