The Supreme Court of India on Thursday started hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. A special bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice KV Viswanathan heard six petitions listed before the court, including separate petitions filed by BJP leaders Ashwini Upadhyay and Subramanian Swamy.
The court issued a significant order during the hearing and ruled that no further petitions will be registered against the Places of Worship Act while the matter is being heard by the court. The court said that while new petitions can be filed, they will not be registered.
The court said, “As the matter is sub-judice before this court we deem it fit to direct that no fresh suits shall be registered or proceedings be ordered. In the pending suits, courts would not pass any effective order or final orders. When a matter is pending before us, is it just and fair for any other court to examine it. We are on vires as well as ambit of the act.”
The court noted that Places of Worship Act expressly prohibits such suits against the Act, therefore the suits cannot proceed until the validity of the law itself is decided. The Supreme Court had confirmed this in the Ayodhya verdict too.
While the court stopped registering new petitions, it allowed a counter-petition filed by Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind to be listed today. The Jamiat is seeking strict implementation of the Places of Worship Act.
The apex court also directed the lower courts to not pass any interim or final orders in the existing petitions regarding the act, including ordering any survey of religious places. The court stated, “As the matter is sub-judice before this Court, we deem it appropriate to direct that while suits may be filed, no suits would be registered and proceedings undertaken till further orders of this Court. We also direct that in the pending suits, the Courts would not pass any effective interim orders or final orders, including orders of survey till the next date of hearing.”
This means that in the existing suits like Gyanvapi mosque, Mathura Shahi Idgah, Sambhal Jama Masjid etc, the courts can’t issue order, and can’t order any new survey.
However, the bench clarified that while the courts can’t issue interim or final orders, the proceedings in the existing cases will continue, and rejected the Muslim sides plea to stay those proceedings too.
The Court also asked the Union Government to file its counter-affidavit and uploaded the same on internet so that all the petitioners can access it.
During the hearing, the court was told that at present there 18 petitions pending against 10 Islamic structures.
The court is hearing several petitions filed against the Act, with the petition filed by Ashwini Upadhyaya in 2020 being the lead petition. On the other hand, several petitions intervention applications have been filed by various political parties like CPI(M), Indian Union Muslim League, DMK and RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha, NCP (Sharad Pawar) MP Jitendra Awhad etc, seeking to keep the act.
The bench appointed Advocates Kanu Agarwal, Vishnu Shankar Jain and Ejaz Maqbool as nodal counsel to prepare compilations on behalf of the central govt, the petitioners and the parties supporting the Act respectively.
