The special Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has dismissed contempt petitions against Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, VHP leader Ashok Singhal and the printer and publisher of a Hindi daily for publishing statements on the Ayodhya dispute despite a court bar on it.
The division bench comprising Justice Bhanwar Singh, Justice SR Alam and Justice Khemkaran, while dismissing the petitions filed by one Haji Mehboob Ahmed, observed that the statements in question were "mere suggestions and nothing else".
The court also dismissed a PIL filed by one Sureshwar Prasad Sinha seeking deeper excavation around 100 km of the disputed site at Ayodhya to gain knowledge about the culture of the people living there in ancient times.
The bench, however, allowed impleadment of Mahant Suresh Das, the disciple of late Paramhans Ramchandra Das in the latter's place and permitted consequential amendment.