After years of delay, the Supreme Court has set up a special bench to hear petitions challenging the Places of Worship Act, 1991, on December 12. The bench will be headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and include Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan.
The Act –that was passed declares that the character of a place of worship as of August 15, 1947, shall be maintained and that no suit or proceeding shall lie in any court in respect of any dispute against the encroachment of any religious properties at any point in time before this date.
It also says that any such pending proceeding shall stand abated and that any proceeding filed on the grounds that conversion of religious place has taken place after August 15, 1947, and before September 18, 1991 (when the Act came into existence), shall be disposed of to maintain the status as existed on August 15, 1947. In May 2022, as the challenges to the Gyan Vapi Masjid grew, Teesta Setalvad, co-editor SabrangIndia traced the unanimity in Parliament when the Act was passed. The law had been passed and enacted into law during the peak of the Ram Janmabhomi movement. KL Advani’s blood filled rath yatra had traversed the country leaving violence and destruction in its wake. It was a Congress government under Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao –who later ‘oversaw the destruction’ of the Babri Masjid months later—that tabled and thereafter enacted the law. The words of then Home Minister S.B.Chavan, as he introduced the Bill are prescient, “It is considered necessary to adopt these measures in view of the controversies arising from time to time with regard to conversion of places of worship which tend to vitiate the communal atmosphere… Adoption of this Bill will effectively prevent any new controversies from arising in respect of conversion of any place of worship…”
Not only has the law not been allowed to serve the purpose –given the ambivalence of the higher judiciary in enforcing it –but today the very forces that opposed its enactment (Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological fountainhead the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-RSS) rule India and several states.
After capturing power in 2014, several petitions have challenged the Act saying it bars the remedy of judicial review, a basic feature of the Constitution, and is therefore outside the legislative competence of the Parliament. The Act, petitioners have said, also violates the principle of secularism.
“The result (of this Act) is that Hindu devotees cannot raise their grievance by instituting any suit in civil court or invoking the jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India against the high handiness of ultras and will not be able to restore back the religious character of Hindu Endowments, Temples, Mutts etc from hoodlums if they had encroached upon such property before 15th August 1947 and such illegal and barbarian act will continue in perpetuity,” the petitioners have claimed in one of the cases.
Finally, the Supreme Court had issued a notice on the petitions and sought the Centre’s views on March 12, 2021. The hearing was thereafter adjourned multiple times following requests from the Centre for more time to respond. However, despite multiple adjournments, the government of India is yet to file a reply.
Related:
The Challenge to Places of Worship Special Provisions Act, 1991 is Misconceived
When and How Ram Vilas Paswan made a strong pitch for the Places of Worship Act, 1991