While hearing the petitions against the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, the Supreme Court on Thursday restrained all existing and proposed surveys of places of worship. It ordered other lower courts not to invite or make any sort of orders concerning mosque surveys before it resumes on the matter.
The bench comprising CJI Sanjiv Khanna, S Sanjay Kumar & K Veeraswami has said, “No order of survey or any other effective order is to be passed in existing suits as well.” The bench clarified that it would look at circumstances in which this provision of the 1991 law may be invoked — the ‘vires, contours, and ambit’ of Section 65 of the 1991 law.
The court has called on the central government to respond to the petitions so that other stakeholders can reply within four weeks. After these submissions, the bench will set a date for a full-blown hearing of the matter. However, the court has permitted several interested parties, such as Muslim organisations, to come in as interested parties in the case.
Currently, there are at least six pending petitions before the Supreme court, including one by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay. The legal assault on Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Places of Worship Act brought about the petition claiming that they denied the basic human rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs to restore their places of worship and pilgrimages, which were, allegedly demolished earlier.
These are claims that the Act is unfavourable to judicial remedies and prohibits the review of challenging the historical status of places of worship in a blanket manner. The case has received much attention, and different religious and political organizations have followed the case to a very close liking.
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