Spl court to hear Babri plea soon

The Babri demolition spectre looms over top BJP and VHP leaders again with a Lucknow district court set to hear on February 26 a CBI petition that it be allowed to begin trial against the 21 accused.

The investigating agency has suffered two setbacks earlier. In 2001, the Allahabad High Court quashed a notification in connection with the trial of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and 19 others on the ground that prior permission was not sought before setting up the special court for Ayodhya matters.

In November last year, the Supreme Court, on a petition which pleaded why the UP government was not issuing a fresh notification on the issue, asked the current Mayawati government to come out with its reply and had given a deadline of eight months in September last year to file an affidavit.