A special court hearing the Babri Masjid demolition cases against senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani, M M Joshi and six others today fixed May 20 next for further hearing on the matter.

Special Judge V K Singh posted the matter for May 20 after hearing the defence counsel who challenged the authority of Central Bureau of Investigation to prosecute the matter.

The defence counsel pleaded that CBI was only an investigating agency and had no right to prosecute.

The CBI counsel had earlier cited several Supreme Court and High Court rulings while arguing that the investigating agency was fully competent to launch prosecutions. Besides Advani and Joshi, former party leader Uma Bharati, BJP national general secretary Vinay Katiyar, Vishwa

Hindu Parishad leaders Ashok Singhal, Acharya Giriraj Kishore and Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and Sadhvi Ritambhara are facing charges in the matter.