Lucknow, May 20 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and 20 others got a reprieve Thursday with the Allahabad High Court rejecting a plea to revive criminal cases against them in the 18-year-old Babri Mosque demolition case.

The Lucknow bench of the court dismissed a plea of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to revive criminal cases against the accused.

The CBI had sought the high court’s intervention to revive criminal cases against Advani and 20 others, against whom the trial court had dropped the charge of criminal conspiracy for the demolition of the 16th century mosque by violent Hindu mobs in Uttar Pradesh's ancient town of Ayodhya Dec 6, 1992.

Besides Advani, those who benefit from by the high court’s order include senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Vinay Katiyar.

Former BJP leaders Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ashok Singhal also benefit from the high court order.

The high court decision implies that trial in criminal cases related the demolition will now be held against 26 little-known workers of the BJP and its allies, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal.