Supreme Court to govt: Reply to plea against Places of Worship Act in 2 weeks

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 9

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to respond to petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, that mandates status quo with regard to character of places of worship as existing on August 15, 1947.

Row over status quo on religious places

Petitioners contend the 1991 law created ‘arbitrary and irrational retrospective’ cut-off date of August 15, 1947, for maintaining the character of places of worship against encroachment done by ‘fundamentalist-barbaric invaders and law-breakers’

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit gave two weeks to the Centre to file its reply after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought time to respond and posted the matter for further hearing on October 11.

The Bench — which also included Justice S Ravindra Bhatt and Justice PS Narasimha — allowed all intervention applications of various parties, including the one filed by a daughter of the royal family of Kashi.

The petitioners and interveners included BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Ashwini Upadhyay, retired Army officer Anil Kabotra, advocates Chandra Shekhar and Rudra Vikram Singh, Devkinandan Thakur, Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati, and former BJP MP Chintamani Malviya, besides others. The top court asked the parties to file written submissions, not exceeding five pages, to enable it to appreciate their respective case. Considering the issues involved, it should be heard by a Bench of three judges, it said.

As senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi suggested that the matter should be referred to a Constitution Bench, the CJI said the three-judge Bench would take a call on the issue.

The controversial Act created a retrospective cut-off date and declared that the character of places of worship shall be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947. The petitioners contended that the 1991 law created an “arbitrary and irrational retrospective cut-off date” of August 15, 1947, for maintaining the character of the places of worship or pilgrimage against encroachment done by “fundamentalist-barbaric invaders and law-breakers”.

Parliament cannot restrain Hindu devotees to get back their places of worship through judicial process and cannot make any law which takes away or abridges the vested religious right of devotees and cannot make any law with retrospective effect, they submitted. The petitions are being seen as an attempt to start a legal battle to reclaim disputed religious sites at Kashi, Mathura and some other places where disputed mosques stand.

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