The Supreme Court of India has asked the Centre to file a reply to a batch of PILs challenging the validity of certain provisions of a 1991 law that prohibits filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947. The court was informed by one of the lawyers in the case that the Centre has not yet filed an affidavit despite its order. The top court has listed for hearing six petitions, including the one filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, against the provisions of the law. The matter will be heard by a three-judge bench in July.
Petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay has challenged the validity of sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, on the grounds that they take away the right of judicial remedy to reclaim a place of worship of any person or a religious group. He has also challenged the provisions that maintain the status quo on the ownership and character of religious places as of August 15, 1947, alleging that the law creates an “arbitrary and irrational retrospective cut-off date” and that it goes against the right to equality and non-discrimination enshrined in the Constitution. According to Ashwini Upadhyay, the 1991 law’s provision to maintain the character of religious places of worship as on August 15, 1947, is arbitrary and irrational. He claims that it fails to consider the historical facts and the various invasions and encroachments that may have happened before that date. Upadhyay further alleges that the provision protects the encroachment done by “fundamentalist-barbaric invaders and law-breakers” and violates the right of judicial remedy to reclaim a place of worship of any person or religious group.