From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Two separate Benches of the Supreme Court on Tuesday closed all proceedings arising out of the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 and all cases related to the Gujarat riots in 2002 except the Naroda case going on before a trial court.
A 3-judge Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath ordered closure of all proceedings in the Babri Mosque demolition and dropped the contempt proceedings against former Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, Sadhvi Ritambhara and others.
“Nothing survives in the matter now” since after a larger bench of the Supreme Court has already delivered a judgment on the Ayodhya matter, the Bench said.
“You can’t keep flogging a dead horse. We are only making an attempt to take up old matters. Some may survive some may go. Larger issue has already been decided by a five- judge bench. Petitioner has died, contempt petition against the respondents closed,” the Bench said.
In a separate hearing by a 3-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Jamshed B Prdiwala also closed all proceedings arising out of the 2002 riots in Gujarat. A score of pleas were pending before the top court, commenting on them the Bench said the cases have become infructuous with the passage of time.
“Trials in eight out of nine cases are over and final arguments are going on in one case in trial court, Naroda Gaon, Gujarat,” the Bench said.
CONTEMPT DROPPED: Another Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee, Surya Kant and M M Sundresh on Tuesday dropped the contempt cse against advocate Prashant Bhushan and journalist Tarun Tejpal, after senior advocate Kapil Sibal informed that an apology has been tendered by both on their remarks against the judiciary in a contempt notice issued by the top court in November 2009.
“In view of the apology tendered by the contemnors, we do not deem it necessary to proceed with the contempt. The contempt proceedings are dropped,” the bench said.
