The Centre through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has informed the Supreme Court that its response on the plea(s) that have challenged the constitutional validity of Places of Worship Act, 1991 will require a consultative process involving higher functionaries.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, thus, granted more time to the Centre to file its response in the batch of petitions, which have challenged the Act. The Court listed the cases for hearing in the first week of January, 2023, and Centre’s response should be filed on or before December 12, 2022.
Today, Dr Subramanian Swamy intimated to the Court though his petition has been tagged with the batch of petition(s), the subject matter of his averments is different. “I just want temples to be added to the Places of Worship Act, 1991 and the Act can survive as it is,” he said.
On the last date of hearing, the top court had sought a response from the Centre, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had pointed out that the Ram Janmabhoomi judgment did not deal with the validity of the Act.
Advocate J Sai Deepak had pointed out that “in light of the Ram Janmabhoomi judgment, Section 5 of the Places of Worship Act is a stark violation of Article 14 and of Article 26 because for certain Sampradaya’s Kashi Vishwanath may be more important than Ram Janmabhoomi”.
BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay challenged the Places of Worship Act, 1991 before the Supreme Court last year. The Supreme Court issued a notice in the same last March.
“Centre has barred the remedies against illegal encroachment on the places of worship and pilgrimages and now Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs cannot file Suit or approach High Court under Article 226. Therefore, they won’t be able to restore their places of worship and pilgrimage including temples-endowments in spirit of Articles 25-26 and illegal barbarian act of invaders will continue in perpetuity,” the petition by Upadhyay states.
Following this, plea(s) on the same issue by Advocate Chandra Shekhar, former Member of Parliament Chintamani Malviya, Swami Jeetendra Saraswatee, Devkinandan Thakurji, and Anil Kabootra were tagged together.
In June 2022, a Muslim outfit, Jamait Ulama-I-Hind filed an impleadment application in Upadhyay’s plea and All India Muslim Personal Law Board moved an application in the same opposing the challenge. It is the AIMPLB’s contention that “Upadhyay himself was once involved in August 2021 in an event where persons had been invited who indulged in hate speech, and wherein persons had been raising divisive slogans at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi which is sufficient to disentitle him to invoke the jurisdiction of the Court in the instant matter or PIL jurisdiction generally”.
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