The Supreme Court on Friday set a two-week deadline for the Uttar Pradesh government to issue orders on the extension of tenure of the special judge hearing the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case in Lucknow.
In July this year, the top court has extended the tenure of the special CBI judge hearing the case until the trial gets over. It also gave a nine-month deadline for the Lucknow trial court to pronounce the final verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
A bench of justice RF Nariman and justice Surya Kant had asked special judge SK Yadav — earlier scheduled to retire on September 30 — to complete recording of evidence in six months and ordered both the prosecution and defence witnesses to cooperate in fast-tracking the case.
The top court had on April 1, 2017, given the judge two years to complete the trial after it revived criminal conspiracy charges against senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, in the case.