No fresh construction of places of worship at public places: SC

The restriction would apply to temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras and places of worship of all other communities, a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma said in an interim order. The Bench said its order would be enforced till the issue relating to construction of places of worship at public places is finally resolved by the apex court.

The apex court also said that the fate of existing places of worship shall be dealt by the respective state governments on a "case to case" basis. The Bench passed the direction after Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium informed the apex court that the Centre and the states had reached a consensus that there shall be no fresh construction of places of worship at public places.

The apex Court had on July 31 directed the government to ensure no place of worship is allowed to come up by encroaching public place. The direction to the Centre came during the hearing of a petition challenging the Gujarat High Court order of May, 2006, by which the Municipal corporations in the state were directed to demolish all illegal structures including places of worship on public roads.