Supreme Court will hear on Places of Worship Act on December 12, special bench formed

New Delhi: On December 12, the Supreme Court will hear petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship Act 1991. Supreme Court Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K.V. Vishwanathan’s special bench will hear the petition filed in this case. The petitioners argue that the Places of Worship Act is arbitrary and unfair. This violates the fundamental rights to practice religion, thereby violating the fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 25 of the Indian Constitution.On whose behalf is the petition filed?
The main petition in this case was filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay in 2020. In this matter, in March 2021, the Supreme Court had asked the Center to file a reply. Later, other petitions in this matter (like Vishwa Bhadra Pujari Purohit Mahasangh and Dr. Subramaniam Swamy etc.) were also filed challenging this law. This law prohibits legal action to maintain the status quo of religious structures and to change them as on August 15, 1947.

The government has not yet filed its reply in this matter. Hearings have been held several times in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court had extended the deadline several times for the government to file its reply. Last time on July 11, 2023, the Supreme Court had asked the Central Government in this matter to file its reply by October 31, 2023.

In the same matter, recently the Gyanvapi Masjid Management Committee has filed an intervention petition in the Supreme Court in the context of petitions challenging the validity of the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The Committee said that the petitioners’ demand to declare the Act unconstitutional could have extremely serious consequences.

What happened so far during the hearing?
During the hearing on the petitions challenging the Places of Worship Act, the Supreme Court had given more time to the Central Government to respond on July 11, 2023. A demand was made by the Central Government for more time to file its reply before the bench led by the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court DY Chandrachud.

The Supreme Court has already given time to the Central Government several times to reply. Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the Center to file its reply by October 12, 2022. Then the court gave time till 31 October 2022. After this, the Supreme Court had once again asked the Central Government to file its reply by the end of February 2023.

During this, Brinda Grover, on behalf of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, argued that an intervention petition has been filed and there is a demand for a stay on the Act. Then the Chief Justice had said that there is no stay on this Act, just because the case is pending does not mean that there is a stay on the Act. The Center had then asked to postpone the hearing of the case. During this, the bench had said that the Center should be allowed to file its reply. The court had said that there is no stay on the operation of the law.