New Delhi, Sept 05: The Centre today opposed in the Delhi High Court former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's petition against his being summoned by the Liberhan Commission probing the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya, saying it was not maintainable. "His (Singh's) petition was disposed of in April and now he wants to revive it. This is not maintainable", Centre's counsel Nisha Kant Pandey told Justice A K Sikri.

The court gave 10 days to the Centre, Liberhan Commission and the Uttar Pradesh government after the Commission's counsel Anupam Gupta sought time to file reply to Singh's petition and fixed September 19 for further hearing.

Earlier, senior counsel M N Krishnamani, appearing for Singh, complained that the former Chief Minister was unnecessarily being taken to task by the Commission. Singh was summoned by the commission in the wake of his controversial statement that he would "expose" the role of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and several other BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders in the conspiracy to demolish the disputed structure.

Following his failure to appear before it, the one-man panel had on September 2 issued bailable warrant against Singh seeking his presence on September 23/24.

In his petition filed through counsel Ajay Agrawal, Singh sought to revive his earlier petition which became infructuous on April 01 following conclusion of recording of evidence by the Commission. Singh has not yet appeared as a witness before the panel contending that his appearance would prejudice his defence in the CBI case on the demolition.

Bureau Report