SC considers Owaisi’s plea seeking to maintain 1991 places of worship law | India News

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to consider Asaduddin Owaisi’s plea, along with similar petitions, seeking implementation of the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The matter will come up for hearing on February 17.
Owaisi’s petition sought the implementation of the 1991 law, which requires maintaining the religious character of a place as it existed on August 15, 1947.
He All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) filed the declaration on December 17, 2024 through lawyer Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi.
Owasi filed his plea days after a bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna restrained all courts from considering fresh demands and passing interim or final orders in pending cases seeking to reclaim. religious placesparticularly mosques and dargahs.
“As the matter is subjudice in this court, we consider it appropriate that no fresh suit be registered and proceedings be conducted till further orders of this court,” the CJI-led bench had said on December 12 while acting on a batch. of similar grounds against the 1991 law.
Owaisi, in his plea, also sought directions from the Center to ensure effective implementation of the law, his lawyer told news agency PTI.
He also referred to cases where several courts had ordered inspection of mosques at the request of Hindu litigants, he said.
The Muslim side has also called for strict implementation of the 1991 law to maintain community harmony and to preserve the current status of the mosques, he sought to be claimed by the Hindu side by saying that the temples existed in these places before the invaders razed them.

What is the Places of Worship Law?

The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 prohibits conversion of places of worship and provides for maintenance of religious character as it existed on August 15, 1947. However, the Act made an exception for the Ram Janmabhoomi site , which formed the basis. of the 2019 Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya case, which awarded the disputed land in Ayodhya to the child deity Ram Lalla.

What does the Hindu side say?

The petitions argue that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act was arbitrary and maintain that: a) There was no valid justification for setting August 15, 1947 as the deadline, and b) There is no logical connection between political independence of India, the formation of the Republic and addressing the civilizational conflict arising from the colonial suppression of Hindu identity and the cultural dominance imposed by the Islamic invaders.