No effective interim or final orders will be passed, including on surveys, till next date
Staff Reporter / New Delhi
In a major ruling, Supreme Court today directed that there shall no interim or final order, or orders of survey, be passed by any court on disputes based on Places of Worship Act of 1991.
The apex court said that since the top court is examining the Act, it will be unfair if any (lower court) passes any order on this issue.
Though the Supreme Court did not stay the ongoing proceeds in the lower court, but it directed that there shall be no affective order till the Supreme Court decides on the validity of Places of Worship Act
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, a statute that has protected the identity and character of religious sites as they existed on August 15, 1947.
“We deem it fit to direct that no fresh suits shall be registered or proceedings be ordered. In the pending suits, no effective interim orders or final orders including orders of survey can be granted by civil courts till the next date of hearing,” the court said.
The court also directed the Centre to file its reply within four weeks.
The case involves a slew of petitions challenging the legality of the 1991 Act. The petitioners, including advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, blame the 1991 law for barring Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs from approaching courts to “re-claim” their places of worship which were allegedly “invaded” and “encroached” upon by “fundamentalist barbaric invaders”.
Muslim organisations such as the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, however, have countered. They say that these pleas, in the guise of public interest petitions, cannot challenge a Central legislation which has guarded the spirit of fraternity and secularism, virtues from the Preamble of the Constitution, as well as parts of the “basic structure” of the Constitution, through the protection of the religious character of religious places.
In June 2022, the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind moved the apex court seeking impleadment in the petition, contending that it was apparent that Upadhyay has sought to indirectly target places of worship which are presently of Islamic character.
The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 mandates that the nature of all places of worship, except the one in Ayodhya that was then under litigation, shall be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947. The Act, brought in by the P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government during the height of the Ram temple movement, was also meant to apply to the disputed Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi and the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple-Shahi Idgah mosque complex in Mathura.
Several petitions have challenged the Act, saying it bars the remedy of judicial review which the Supreme Court, in its 1980 judgment in Minerva Mills Ltd. & Ors vs Union Of India & Ors, said was a basic feature of the Constitution and, therefore, outside the legislative competence of Parliament. The Act, the petitioners have said, also violates the principle of secularism.