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Ayodhya cases to be tried at Rae Bareily: SC

The question as to which court had the juridiction over the sensitive Ayodhya cases arose after the Allahabad high court quashed a Uttar Pradesh government notification of October 1993 assigning the trial of a case against Advani, Union Human Resources Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Minister for Coal and Mines Uma Bharti and five others to a special court at Lucknow.

Following this, the state government on September 28 this year issued a notification in consultation with the high court assigning the trial of all Ayodhya cases to a special court at Rae Bareily.

Disposing a bunch of petitions challenging the high court order quashing the October 1993 notification, a bench comprising Chief Justice G B Pattanaik, Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Arun Kumar said now that the trial had been assigned to the Rae Bareily court, "we see no justification in the petitions."

When counsel for one of the petitioners, Mohammad Aslam alias Bhure, insisted that the trial be held at Lucknow, the bench said: "No person, much less the petitioners in public interest, can claim for a special court at a special place for the trial of a case."

Appearing for the state government, senior advocate K K Venugopal said the high court had rightly quashed the October 1993 notification as it was issued without its (court's) consultation, which is mandatory under the Criminal Procedure Code.