PIL challenges bar on changing religious character under 1991 Places of Worship law

The top court, through its December 12, 2024 order, had effectively stalled proceedings in about 18 lawsuits seeking surveys to ascertain original religious character of 10 mosques, including Gyanvapi at Varanasi, Shahi Idgah Masjid at Mathura and Shahi Jama Masjid at Sambhal where four people died in clashes.

New Delhi: A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court against the constitutional validity of a provision of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which mandates maintaining the religious character of a place as it existed on August 15, 1947.

The plea, therefore, sought the top court's directions allowing courts to pass appropriate orders to ascertain the original religious character of a place of worship.

The petition claimed to have challenged only Section 4(2) of the Act that barred proceedings to change the religious character, aside from prohibiting filing of fresh cases on the same issue.

"The Centre has transgressed its legislative power in barring the judicial remedy, which is a basic feature of the Constitution. It is well established that the right to judicial remedy by filing suit in a competent court, cannot be barred and the power of courts cannot be abridged and such denial has been held to be violative of basic feature of the constitution, beyond legislative power," said the plea filed by petitioner Nitin Upadhyay, a law student.

The plea, filed through advocate Shweta Sinha, said the Act mandated preservation and maintenance of the religious character of places of worship without barring changes in the "structure, edifice, construction or building" in these places.

It said, "Structural change is permissible to restore the original religious character of the place." The Act did not prohibit any scientific or documentary survey to ascertain the religious character of the place, it added.

On February 17, the apex court expressed displeasure over filing of several pleas on the 1991 Act and said a three-judge bench would in April hear the pending post-notice petitions related to the law.

The top court, however, granted liberty to the petitioners like Samajwadi Party leader and Kairana MP Iqra Choudhary, who have filed the pleas recently, to file applications for intervention in the pending ones by citing new legal grounds.

The top court, through its December 12, 2024 order, effectively stalled proceedings in about 18 lawsuits filed by various Hindu parties seeking survey to ascertain original religious character of 10 mosques, including Gyanvapi at Varanasi, Shahi Idgah Masjid at Mathura and Shahi Jama Masjid at Sambhal where four people died in clashes.

The law prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.

However, the dispute relating to Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid at Ayodhya was kept out of its purview.