New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government, having decided not to issue fresh notification on the trial of top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani in the Ayodhya demolition case, has informed the Supreme Court that if the CBI wanted the trial to commence, it could approach the special Court at Rae Bareli.

The Mayawati government, in an affidavit before the Apex Court, said the 1993 notification to include the trial of the case crime No.198/92 against persons including Advani and Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti before the Lucknow Court was issued "without taking approval of the Governor and without consulting the High Court".

The Allahabad High Court had quashed the notification on technical grounds but had given liberty to the government to issue a fresh notification for trial of the case relating to demolition of the disputed structure in 1992. The Rajnath Singh government had not issued any fresh notification.

The Mayawati government said that the purpose of creating the special Court was only to expedite hearing but it could not be started even after lapse of about 10 years.

"When there is already a special Court created at Rae Bareli for case crime No.198/92, a fresh notification creating another special Court at Lucknow for trial of the accused in case crime No.198/92 does not arise as the trial can be made by the competent Court and the CBI is free to start the proceedings before the competent Court according to law," said the affidavit signed by P K Jain, government's Special Secretary and Additional Legal Remembrancer.

PTI