A Hindu outfit, the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti, moved the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in cases filed against the validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, which preserves the character of religious places as they existed on August 15, 1947.
The plea has challenged Sections 3 and 4 of the 1991 Act, saying they violated several fundamental rights including the right to equality and freedom to practice religion.
The Samiti said the 1991 law undermined judicial authority by barring the courts from reviewing disputes which was in violation of the basic structure of the Constitution.
“The Act prevents judicial review which is one of the fundamental aspects of the Constitution therefore violates the basic structure of the Constitution of India,” it added. The apex court is already seized of several petitions pertaining to the 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.
It 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 the Places of Worship Act.
Pleas of Hindu petitioners challenging the 1991 Act stated, “The Act excludes the birthplace of Bhagwan Ram but includes the birthplace of Bhagwan Krishna, though both are the incarnation of Bhagwan Vishnu, the creator and equally worshipped all over the world.”
The petitions filed had 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 the rule of law, which is an integral part of the Preamble and the 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.
(with inputs from ANI)
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