New Delhi: Supreme Court on June 9 dismissed an appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court order directing Archaeological Survey of India to excavate near the disputed site to determine whether a temple pre-existed Babri Masjid before its demolition.

A vacation Bench comprising Justice R C Lahoti and Justice Brijesh Kumar while refusing permission to Naved Yar Khan to file the appeal, said the petitioner could approach the Lucknow Bench of the High Court and raise the issue.

The Bench, after refusing permission to file Special Leave Petition (SLP), dismissed the petition.

Narrating the sequence of events from construction of the Mosque, Khan stated that the order for excavation would prove to be a bad precedent as now anybody could demand for excavation of any religious site on the pretext that another religious structure pre-existed the present one.

The petitioner further stated that the order for excavation at the disputed site was clearly volatile of the 1994 order of the Supreme Court, which had categorically directed maintenance of status quo at the disputed site till the High Court decided the rival petitions claiming ownership over the land.

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had on March 5 directed ASI to excavate the disputed site.

PTI