The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks time to reply to counter affidavits on a petition filed against acquittal of BJP leader L K Advani in Babri Masjid demolition case. A Bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices G P Mathur and R V Raveendran, adjourned the matter for six weeks to enable the petitioner to file replies to the counter affidavits of Vinay Katiyar, V H Dalmiya, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambara and Ashok Singhal. The petitioner, Wajaht Ansari, had earlier filed the petition against substitution of original chargesheet filed against Advani in 1993 by a supplementary chargesheet filed in 2003 by the CBI, omitting serious charges against him.The petitioner contended that in the original chargesheet filed in 1993, the charges were triable by a sessions court and in case of conviction, could have resulted in life imprisonment. However, the CBI in 2003, in order to oblige the then Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, filed a supplementary chargesheet in the Magistrate’s court in Rae Bareily, omitting serious charges against him. He prayed for a joint trial of all the accused persons in the case, on the basis of the original chargesheet.Opposing the petition, counsels Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad, submitted before the Bench that it should be dismissed as nothing survives in it after dismissal of a similar petition by the SC earlier. Calling it a serious abuse of the process of the court, the counsels argued that when the matter has been decided comprehensively in earlier petition of Mohammad Aslam Bhure, there’s no point in entertaining a similar matter in the present petition.However, the Bench adjourned the matter for six weeks to facilitate filing of replies to counter affidavits in the matter.
