The Supreme Court will hear the petition challenging the validity of a provision of a provision of the worship site (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 on Tuesday. The Act provides for maintaining the religious form of a place according to the position of August 15, 1947.
According to the suit list of April 1, on Tuesday, the petition will be heard before the bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar. The Act banns the change in the religious form of any worship site. The law states to maintain the religious form of a place according to 15 August 1947. However, the dispute related to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue in Ayodhya was excluded from its purview.
The petition requested the Supreme Court to direct that the courts should be allowed to pass a proper order to find out the original religious character of a place of worship. In this, Section 4 (2) of the Act is challenged which prohibits the action to change the religious character of a place of worship as well as a fresh case on it.
The petition filed on behalf of Law student Nitin Upadhyay states, “The Central Government has gone beyond its legislative power to stop the judicial treatment which is a basic feature of the Constitution.” It is well known that the right to get judicial treatment cannot be stopped by filing a case in the competent court and the power of the courts cannot be reduced. It is also well known that this kind of refusal is beyond legislative power and is considered a violation of the basic feature of the Constitution. ”
The petition filed through advocate Shweta Sinha states that the Act has made it mandatory to protect their religious character without prohibiting the “structure, construction or building” of the places of worship. The petition stated, “Structural changes are allowed to restore the original religious character of a place of worship.”
It states that the Act does not stop any scientific or documentary survey to find out the religious character of a site. The court expressed displeasure over the filing of several petitions on the Pratya (Special Provisions) Act, saying in February that the bench of three judges would hear the petitions after the pending notice related to the 1991 law.
The apex court, however, provided the petitioners to file an application for intervention in the pending petitions citing new legal grounds, who have recently filed petitions and notices have not been issued on them.
The apex court, through its order of 12 December 2024, effectively stopped the proceedings in about 18 cases filed by various Hindu sides. These requested a survey to locate the original religious character of 10 mosques including Gyanvapi in Varanasi, Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura and Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal. Four people were killed in clashes in Sambhal’s royal Jama Masjid.
