The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the plea from the Gyanvapi mosque committee challenging an Allahabad High Court ruling on the maintainability of lawsuits seeking the “restoration” of a temple. The court, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, decided to link this plea with other pending matters related to the dispute.
The Allahabad High Court had previously dismissed a set of petitions filed by the Muslim side, contesting the maintainability of the civil suit. The high court ruling affirmed that a civil suit seeking the restoration of a temple, currently under consideration in a Varanasi court, is indeed maintainable. The court emphasized that the determination of the “religious character” of a disputed place falls under the purview of the judiciary.
The lawsuit aims to restore a temple at the location presently occupied by the Gyanvapi mosque. The Hindu side argues that the mosque was constructed on the remains of a temple, making it an integral part of the religious structure.
The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, managing the Gyanvapi mosque, along with the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and other parties, contested the suit’s maintainability. They asserted that the suit was barred under the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
The Act prohibits altering the religious character of holy sites as it stood on India’s independence day in 1947, with an exception made for the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site.
The high court held that the suit filed before the district court is not barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The Act prohibits the “conversion” of the “religious character” of a place from its status on August 15, 1947. This legal development further intensifies the ongoing legal scrutiny surrounding the Gyanvapi mosque and the temple restoration issue, with the Supreme Court now set to delve into the intricacies of the matter.
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