On 9th September 2022, the Supreme Court decided that it will hear petitions challenging the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The apex court has also said that a bench of three judges will be formed to hear all the cases and interventions in this regard. The Supreme Court has also given a time of 2 weeks to the central government to file a reply in this case.
Order: considering issue involved. the matter will be heard by 3 judges of this court and this matter will be listed on October 11, 2022. in the meantime all parties are directed to complete pleadings in the matter and can be considered on next day. #placesofworshipact
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) September 9, 2022
A three-judge bench headed by Chief justice Uday Umesh Lalit and comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha said that the matter will be listed for hearing on 11th October. The bench ordered all the parties to complete all the pleadings by then. Apart from petitions challenging the act, the bench will also hear counter-petitions filed against the petition, including a plea filed by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind to intervene in the hearing.
The Places of Worship Act 1991 mandates character of all religious places of worship be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947. According to this law, no suit or proceeding shall lie in courts of law with respect to the character of such places. Essentially this law means that the nature of a religious place can’t be changed, and therefore mosques which were built after demolishing temples can’t be reclaimed because they were already mosques in 1947.
Hearing various petitions filed by Vishnu Shankar Jain, Ashwini Upadhyay, Subramanian Swamy, and others against different provisions of this act together, the Chief Justice of India U U Lalit said that a 3-judges bench will hear the petition challenging this act on October 11. Ashwini Upadhyay in his petition said that the Places of Worship Act, 1991 creates 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”.
During the hearing, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain said, “Sections 3 and 4 of the places of worship act are challenged. My submission is that right to judicial review can not be taken away. I am relying on the Minerva mills’ judgment.” Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for the Union of India while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that no reply has been filed on behalf of the Union of India. SG Mehta told that it will be filed soon.
Jamiat Ulema E Hind submitted that their intervention application should be allowed in the Ashwini Upadhyay case. After this, the Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan said, “There are close to 15 intervention applications. We were asked to implead ourselves in the pending case.”
Advocate J Sai Deepak also appeared in this case representing the Royal Family of Kashi. He said, “We are here for Princess Rachna Kumari. This is with reference to the Razia mosque. I say that the act is violative of Article 14. We say that one place of worship cannot have greater rights than another religious place.”
In his order, CJI said, “We issue notice in all petitions and intervention applications. It will be listed before a three-judge bench. As per the Bahari foundation judgment, we can do let it be heard before a 5-judge bench, but let the bench be decided on the judicial side. We cannot stop the other courts from interpreting differently.”
The CJI further said in his order, “A bench of 2 judges of this court issued a notice in this case. thereafter this case has come up on a few occasions however no reply by the center yet. The Centre granted 2 weeks time to file a reply, rejoinder a week thereafter. Hosts of applications seek impleadment, considering nature of controversy we allow these applications and allow them to intervene in this matter.”
The order further said, “Intervenors to file written submissions which should not exceed 5 pages. We also issue a notice in the plea by Vishnu Shankar Jain and the one by Ejaz Maqbool considering the issue involved. The matter will be heard by 3 judges of this court and this matter will be listed on October 11, 2022. In the meantime, all parties are directed to complete pleadings in the matter and can be considered on the next day.”
