The Supreme Court prohibits courts from issuing rulings on appeals for mosque surveys.
Under the Place of Worship Act, the nation’s highest court has prohibited courts from admitting or issuing orders in any new lawsuit or plea that requests a survey of mosques. As it began considering petitions against specific clauses of the Places of Worship Act, the Supreme Court halted all inspections of houses of worship on Thursday. Until it hears this case again, the top court ordered subordinate courts to refrain from admitting or issuing any orders on mosque surveys. Upon hearing arguments against the Places of Worship Act, the Supreme Court ruled that “existing suits should not pass any order of survey or any other effective order.” The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and mandates the preservation of each place’s religious identity as it existed on August 15, 1947.
The petitions challenged the Places of Worship Act, asserting that it prevents Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs from reconstructing their damaged “places of worship and pilgrimages”.
“We are examining the vires, contours, and ambit of the 1991 law on places of worship,” said the top court panel, which included Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and KV Vishwanathan in addition to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna. SC requests that the Center respond within four weeks.
A PTI report claims that the Supreme Court gave the Center four weeks to respond to the petitions and cross-examinations and then gave the other parties a further four weeks to respond.
The bench would grant the hearing once the pleadings concluded. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court granted appeals from several parties, including Muslim organizations, who wanted to get involved in the case.
In one of the six cases under consideration by the highest court, Ashwini Upadhyay requested to overturn Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
One of the many arguments put out was that these clauses deny any individual or religious organization the legal recourse to recover a place of worship.