SC to hear AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi's plea on places of worship law
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Thursday a plea by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi seeking the implementation of the 1991 Places of Worship Act, which provides for maintaining the religious character of a place as it existed on August 15, 1947.
Owaisi, a lawyer and MP who heads the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, filed the plea on December 17 last year.
However, on December 12, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, while hearing a series of similar pleas against the 1991 law, restrained all courts from entertaining fresh suits and from passing any interim or final orders in pending cases seeking to reclaim religious places, particularly mosques and dargahs.
“As the matter is sub-judice in this court, we deem it appropriate that no fresh suit be registered and that proceedings are not undertaken until further orders of this court,” the CJI-led bench stated.
The top court effectively stalled proceedings in 18 lawsuits filed by various Hindu parties seeking surveys to ascertain the original religious character of 10 mosques, including Gyanvapi in Varanasi, Shahi Idgah Masjid in Mathura, and Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, where four persons were killed in communal clashes.
The special bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan, was hearing six petitions, including the lead one filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, challenging various provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
One of the contentions was that the provisions removed the right to judicial remedy for reclaiming a place of worship by any person or religious group.
The 1991 law prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of such places as they existed on August 15, 1947.
In his plea, Owaisi has sought a direction to the Centre to ensure the effective implementation of the 1991 law. He also referred to instances where several courts had ordered surveys of mosques based on pleas by Hindu litigants.
The top court is likely to include Owaisi’s plea with the pending matters for hearing on Thursday.
Petitions from the Muslim side have also sought the strict implementation of the 1991 law to maintain communal harmony and preserve the present status of mosques, which Hindus are attempting to reclaim by asserting that temples existed at these sites before invaders razed them.
