Supreme Court agrees to hear Asaduddin Owaisi's plea on implementation of Places of Worship Act

New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday agreed to examine a plea by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi seeking implementation of the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which mandated for maintaining the religious character of a place as it existed on August 15, 1947.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar ordered to tag a fresh plea along with pending cases in the matter.

Advocate Nizam Pasha, representing Owaisi, said that the court is seized of various pleas on the issue and the fresh one may be tagged with them as well.

The bench said the matter will be taken up on February 17 along with them. The plea was filed in December 2024, through advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi.

On December 12, 2024, the apex court, while acting on a batch of similar pleas against the 1991 law, had restrained all courts from entertaining fresh suits and also from passing any interim or final orders in pending cases seeking to reclaim religious places.

The apex court passed the order on petitions filed by NGOs Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and All India Muslim Personal Law Board for implementation of the 1991 law.

A batch of petitions, including the lead one filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, challenged various provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

The 1991 law was enacted by the P V Narasimha Rao government at the height of Ram temple movement. The law was meant to protect status of religious places as existed on August 15, 1947.