GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Thursday, December 12 ordered that no further suits could be registered against places of worship till further orders from it.
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The apex court also ordered that in pending suits (such as those concerning Gyanvapi mosque, Mathura Shahi Idgah, Sambhal Jama Masjid etc.) the courts should not pass effective interim or final orders, including orders for survey. The interim order was passed while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, according to a Live Law report.
A special bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice KV Viswanathan passed the following order.
"As the matter is sub-judice before this Court, we deem it appropriate to direct that while suits may be filed, no suits would be registered and proceedings undertaken till further orders of this Court. We also direct that in the pending suits, the Courts would not pass any effective interim orders or final orders, including orders of survey till the next date of hearing."
However, the court refused to stay the proceedings in the suits which are presently pending against places of worship like mosques/dargahs. It also asked the Union government to file its counter-affidavit in the petitions which question the Places of Worship Act within four weeks from today.
The bench was informed that at present 18 suits are pending in the country against 10 mosques/shrines.
The court was hearing a batch of petitions questioning the constitutional validity of the 1991 Act which prohibits the conversion of religious character of places of worship from their status as of August 15, 1947.
The lead petition (Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India) was filed in 2020, in which the court issued notice to the Union government in March 2021. Later, a few other similar petitions were filed challenging the statute.
A writ petition filed by Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind seeking the implementation of the Act was also listed today. Several intervention applications have been filed by various political parties like CPI(M), Indian Union Muslim League, DMK and RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha, NCP (Sharad Pawar) MP Jitendra Awhad etc, seeking the protection of the Act.
