Top court to take up promotion petition of Babri case trial judge

COURT ALSO SOUGHT A REPLY FROM THE JUDGE ON HOW HE INTENDED TO COMPLETE THE TRIAL IN THE CASE BY THE APRIL 2019 DEADLINE

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a petition by additional sessions and district judge SK Yadav, hearing the Babri Masjid demolition criminal cases against senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and kar sevaks, challenging a stay on his promotion by Allahabad high court.

Seeking response from the Uttar Pradesh government on the issue of Yadav’s promotion, a bench of justices RF Nariman and Indu Malhotra also sought reply from the additional sessions judge of a Lucknow court on how he intended to complete the trial in the December 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case by the April 2019 deadline.

The Supreme Court had in April 2017 revived conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and others and transferred the case from from Rae Bareilly and clubbed it with a similar case in Lucknow.

While the Rae Bareilly case pertained to the role of BJP leaders making provocative speeches and inciting the mobs, the Lucknow case related to the role of kar sevaks in the demolition of Babri Masjid. The court also directed day-to-day hearing in cases relating to the demolition and said “that there shall be no transfer of the judge conducting the trial till the trial concludes.”

Yadav, in his petition, complained that because of a SC order restraining the transfer of the Ayodhya Matters judge “till the entire trial concludes” by April 2019, he is being denied promotion to the position of a district judge. In his petition, Yadav argued that in June 2018, the Allahabad high court appointed him as district judge, Badaun, on promotion. But the appointment was stayed the same day by the high court citing the 2017 SC order that prohibited the same.

Yadav argued that the SC order was causing prejudice to his career prospects. “The applicant is approaching superannuation and at the end of his career, while his juniors and batch mates have been appointed as district judges, the applicant has been denied promotion causing serious prejudice to him,” Yadav’s petition said. NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a petition filed by the father of Alwar mob lynching victim, Rakbar Khan, requesting the top court to shift the trial in the case out of Rajasthan because he wasn’t sure of a fair hearing in the state.

Alleging interference in the probe by the Alwar MLA, Gyandev Ahuja of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Khan’s father, Sulaiman Meo, also sought handing over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation or, alternatively, for a court monitored probe.

Ahuja termed the allegations levelled in the petition as baseless and claimed that innocent people have been charge-sheeted by the police. “Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria himself visited the spot and declared that Rakbar Khan died in police custody.judicial probe is still going on and police should have waited for the inquiry report before submitting the charge-sheet in the local court,” he said.

Sulaiman Meo also cast aspersion on the impartiality of investigations by Rajasthan Police. “Attempts are being made to manipulate and botch up the investigation with a view to shield and save the real culprits” he said in the petition.

Khan (28) was allegedly beaten up by cow vigilantes in Alwar district’s Ramgarh area on July 20, this year, when he was leading two cows from Ladpura village to his home to Haryana. On September 7, police filed a 25-page chargesheet in the case against three Alwar villagers.

The charge sheet asserts that Khan was killed by a mob and interestingly doesn’t mention the role of police in his death. It later emerged that Khan was indeed beaten up by a group of cow vigilantes in Lalawandi village who suspected him of smuggling cows, but that he died in police custody while the policemen in charge ensured the cows were safely transported to a Gaushala.

The petition, which will be heard by the top court next week also seeks compensation, citing Khan to be the sole earning member of his family.