New Delhi [India], January 2 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Thursday posted for hearing on February 17 the plea of AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi seeking enforcement of Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, which preserves the character of religious places as they existed on August 15, 1947.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar tagged Owaisi’s plea along with a batch of similar petitions which will come up for hearing on February 17.
India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and parliamentarian sought strict enforcement of the 1991 Act emphasising the need to prevent any alteration of religious sites and ensure the law’s effective implementation.
The apex court is already seized of several petitions pertaining to challenge to the Act and strict implementation of the Act.
The Places of Worship Act prohibits altering the religious nature of any place of worship and imposes strict penalties for violations.
On December 12, the top court restrained all courts across the country from passing any effective interim or final order including orders of survey in pending suits against existing religious structures.
The special bench had also ordered that no fresh suits can be registered over such claims while the court is hearing pleas challenging the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
The directive had stayed proceedings in approximately 18 such lawsuits, which had sparked communal and political tensions. On the day, it had also granted four weeks to the Centre to clarify its stance on the Act.
Daughter of the Kashi Royal Family, Maharaja Kumari Krishna Priya; BJP leader Subramanian Swamy; Chintamani Malviya, former Member of Parliament; Anil Kabotra, a retired army officer; advocates Chandra Shekhar; Rudra Vikram Singh, resident of Varanasi; Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati, a religious leader; Devkinandan Thakur Ji, resident of Mathura and a religious guru and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay among others have filed the pleas in the apex court against the 1991 Act.
The pleas challenged the Places of Worship Act saying that the Act takes away the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to restore their ‘places of worship and pilgrimages’, destroyed by invaders.
From Muslim side — Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, India Muslim Personal Law Board, Committee of Management Anjuman Intezamia Masjid which manages the mosque in the Gyanvapi complex, Shahi Idgah mosque committee of Mathura — among others also filed applications in the top court against the petitions challenging the validity of certain provisions of a 1991 law.
They challenged the petitions filed by some Hindu petitioners saying that entertaining the pleas against the Act will open floodgates of litigations against countless mosques across India.
Filing intervention application in the case they sought dismissal of pleas challenging Places of Worship Act.
Pleas of Hindu petitioners challenging the 1991 Act stated, “The Act excludes the birthplace of Lord Rama but includes the birthplace of Lord Krishna, though both are the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the creator and equally worshiped all over the world.”
The petitions filed have challenged the constitutional validity of Sections 2, 3, 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, which it said violates the principles of secularism and rule of law, which is integral part of Preamble and basic structure of the Constitution.
The pleas said that the Act has taken away the right to approach the Court and thus right to judicial remedy has been closed.
Section 3 of the Act bars the conversion of places of worship. It states, “No person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof.”
Section 4 bars filing of any suit or initiating any other legal proceeding for a conversion of the religious character of any place of worship, as existing on August 15, 1947.
The Places of Worship Act 1991 is void and unconstitutional for many reasons, the plea said, adding that it offends right of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs to pray, profess, practice and prorogate religion (Article 25), the petitions said. It also infringes on their right to manage, maintain and administer the places of worship and pilgrimage (Article 26), pleas added. (ANI)
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