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Synopsis

The Allahabad High court will hear a plea against the order of the Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court at Lucknow (delivered on 30 September 2020) in the Babri demolition case wherein the judge acquitted all 32 accused of criminal conspiracy.

Babri Masjid was demolished on 6 December 1992 by ‘Karsevaks’. After a prolonged legal battle, the order of the Special CBI court acquitted all the accused including former deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and senior BJP leader MM Joshi holding that the CBI could not produce any evidence that prove that accused had a meeting of mind.

The plea against the order was originally filed as a criminal revision plea in 2021 by two residents of Ayodhya namely Haji Mahmood Ahmed and Syed Akhlaq Ahmed who claimed to have witnessed the incident on 6 December 1992.

While asking for change in nature of the plea, Senior counsel Syed Farman Ali Naqvi, on behalf of the petitioners, submitted that by an inadvertent mistake, revision had been filed by the revisionists and in view of the 2009 amendment made in Section 372 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the revisionists ought to have preferred an appeal.

He further mentioned section 401(5) of CrPC, under which Court may treat revision as appeal.

Considering the submission of the senior counsel, the single judge bench comprising Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh directed the criminal revision plea to be treated as a criminal appeal under section 372 CrPC.

Accordingly, Court directed the Registry to give a number to the revision plea as appeal and posted it on August 1, 2022 to decide upon the admissibility of the plea.

Moreover, Court directed the CBI and State to raise their objections regarding the admissibility of the appeal.

[Inputs: Indian Express]