Centre silent on Places of Worship Act as Congress moves SC to to join pleas

The court will likely hear the case on February 17. It is learnt that deliberations are on within the government and no stand has been taken yet. A larger challenge to the law has been pending since 2020 and notice was first issued to the Centre in March 2021. In September 2022, the government had sought two weeks to file an affidavit. In October 2022, the Centre had sought “further time of two weeks to do the needful”. Again in July 2023, the Centre had given time till October 2023 after it submitted that “a common affidavit in reply is under preparation in response to the entire batch of cases”.

The Places of Worship Act, enacted in 1991, says the “religious character” of a place of worship would remain as it was on August 15, 1947. The only exception to this, as per the law, was “Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid”. At the time of its enactment, the Ayodhya agitation was going on and the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute was in court.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Congress approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to intervene in pending petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship Act, calling the law “essential to safeguard secularism in India”.

The application, filed through party general secretary K C Venugopal, said that the present challenge to the law “appears to be a motivated and malicious attempt to undermine established principles of secularism”. The party said the SC “has on multiple occasions held that the focus of the nation must be towards the future and not at attempting to rectify the atrocities of the past”.

The plea said: “At the time of the passing of the Act, the Congress party along with the Janata Dal party that were in the majority in the legislature for the 10th Lok Sabha”, adding: “… (It) was enacted by the Parliament, as it reflected the mandate of the Indian populace”.

Opposing the petitions challenging the Act, the application said it plays a pivotal role in furthering the right to freedom of religion and protects secularism, which is an established basic feature of the constitution.

It said that the contention that the Act is “violative” of the fundamental right to freedom of religion and the basic tenets of secularism is “legally flawed” and referred to the SC ruling in the Ayodhya case. The ruling said that the law embodied a constitutional commitment to “equality of all religions and secularism which is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution”.

Hearing the petitions against the Act, the SC had on December 122, 2024, barred civil courts across the country from registering fresh suits challenging the ownership and title of any place of worship and from ordering surveys of disputed religious places till further orders.