Wednesday, July 6 2005 16:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Congress today (July 6, 2005) said the decision of the Allahabad High Court in the Babri Masjid Demolition case setting aside trial court's order discharging L K Advani must be accepted and accused the then BJP-(Bharatiya Janata Party) led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government of "scuttling" the process of law to protect him.

"Law must be respected and all should abide by the judicial process. Law must take its own course and it should not be subverted," party spokesman Anand Sharma told sources in New Delhi to the High Court decision.

"The High Court order is an vindication of what has been said all along.....There was a BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre and in UP at that time. Every effort was made to scuttle the process of law to go soft on Advani", he said.

Noting that the court has taken into consideration facts and sequence of events leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Sharma said that the Rae Bareli court had discharged Advani, as the chargesheet against him did not contain Section 120 B, which relates to criminal conspiracy.

He said CBI was wrong in filing such a chargesheet, which did not include the charge of criminal conspiracy.

Sharma said it was common knowledge that Advani had engaged in a campaign of mass mobilisation all over the country, including in Uttar Pradesh on the Ayodhya issue prior to the demolition and what had happened on December 6, 1992 was a "direct result of the passion that were aroused due to the provocative speeches made during the mobilisation."

Sharma said Advani's discharge, as was explained earlier, came following the chargesheet, which was filed in the Rae Barely court dropping Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) charges against him.

"That situation had arisen primarily because of technical infirmity, which was correctable by a fresh notification, that was not done", he said.