The Supreme Court, in April 2017, had ordered that the judge would not be transferred till the trial is concluded in 2019.
New Delhi: Special judge Surendra Kumar Yadav, who is hearing the Babri Masjid matter at a trial court in Lucknow, has moved the Supreme Court to challenge an Allahabad High Court order that cancelled his promotion and transfer.
On 1 June, the high court had issued an order promoting Yadav as district judge. However, hours later, the court withdrew the order, because of a Supreme Court order from 19 April 2017.
The apex court bench of justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohinton F. Nariman had, through this order, transferred the trial from Rae Bareli to Lucknow, and instructed that there would be daily hearings. It had also ordered that the judge would not be transferred until the trial is concluded in April 2019.
In his plea, Yadav submitted that he had entered the judicial service as a munsif in 1990 and had an unblemished record for 28 years. “However, despite utmost sincerity and honesty with which the applicant has worked, the applicant and family are embarrassed and humiliated in the twilight of his service,” the plea, drawn up by advocate Mayuri Raghuvanshi, read.
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“That the applicant is reaching his superannuation and at the end of his career, while his batchmates and his juniors have been appointed as district judges, the applicant has been denied promotion and still working as additional and sessions judge/special judge (Ayodhya matters) at Lucknow, causing serious prejudice to the applicant.”
Significance of the SC order
The 19 April, 2017, apex court order was the one that had revived criminal charges against senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party i(BJP) in the Babri Masjid demolition case. The bench had directed the trial court to commence hearing the case from the point it had stopped more than a decade ago, and also directed to frame the additional charge of conspiracy against L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia.
Kalyan Singh, Governor of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, will continue to enjoy immunity as long as he holds his current office.
Present status of the trial
The apex court Monday asked Yadav how he intended to complete the trial in the Babri Masjid demolition case before the April 2019 deadline. The bench, comprising Justice Nariman and Justice Indu Malhotra, directed judge Yadav to file the report in a sealed cover.
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According to Yadav’s affidavit, the trial court has framed charges against the eight senior BJP leaders on 30 May, 2017, as per directions of the top court. So far, of the 1,026 witnesses in all – 313 have been examined, 73 witnesses have been discharged, 81 are untraceable, and 88 have passed away, leaving 473 witnesses yet to be examined.