The Supreme Court on Saturday has extended the deadline till September 30 to complete the proceedings and deliver verdict in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case.

“Having read the report of Mr. Surendra Kumar Yadav, learned Special Judge, and considering that the proceedings are at the fag end, we grant one month’s time, i.e., till 30th September, 2020, to complete the proceedings including delivery of judgment,” the court said.

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The special CBI court is hearing the Babri Masjid demolition case. Earlier, the Supreme Court had given time till August 31 to the trial court in Lucknow to deliver its verdict.

Senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and others are defendants in the case against whom the trial is going on in the CBI court in Lucknow.

Special Judge SK Yadav has asked the Supreme Court for more time. The court had, in 2017, asked the trial court to conduct day-to-day hearing and complete the trial in two years.

Later in July 2019, the deadline was extended further by nine months and the apex court had also extended the tenure of the CBI court judge till the case is over.

The judge was set to retire in September 2019.

The apex court had clubbed two criminal cases pending for years in the Rae Bareli and Lucknow courts and transferred it to the special CBI court in Lucknow.

The Rae Bareli case was related with the accusations against BJP and right-wing leaders for having given speeches to promote enmity and threatened national integration while the Lucknow case involves unnamed ‘kar sevaks’ or activists.

The demolition of the Babri Masjid which came in the backdrop of ‘political of religion’ has changed the course of the Indian politics and was followed by series of communal violence.

On December 6, 1992, ‘kar sevaks’ who claimed that an ancient Ram temple stood at the same site, mounted at the top of the tomb of the mosque and demolished the building completely.

The special CBI court had been recording the statements of the accused under CrPC Section 313 since June 5 after it completed the examination of 354 prosecution witnesses.