The Supreme Court today directed a Rae Bareily court to expeditiously hear Babri Masjid demolition case against senior BJP leader L K Advani and 19 others against whom charge of criminal conspiracy was dropped by the trial court.

Expressing deep anguish over non-appearence of the counsel for CBI, which has moved the apex court against dropping of conspiracy charges against the top politicians in the apex court, a bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad directed the trial court to hear the case expeditiously.

The bench, meanwhile, allowed the CBI to remove the nameof Bal Thackeray from the list of accused persons as he died recently.

The CBI has moved the apex court challenging the May 21st,2010 order of the Allahabad High Court judgement, which had upheld a special court's decision to drop the charges against the leaders.

The high court had at that time, however, allowed the CBI to proceed with other charges against Advani and others in a Rae Bareily court, under which the disputed structure falls.

The May 2010 order of the high court had said there was no merit in the CBI's revision petition against the May 4th,2001 order of the special court which directed dropping of criminal conspiracy charges against them.

There are two sets of cases — one against Advani and others who were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya in December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, while the other case was against lakhs of unknown 'karsevaks' who were in and around the disputed structure.