SC agrees to hear Asaduddin Owaisi’s plea seeking Places of Worship Act implementation on February 17

Hearing the pending petitions some of which have challenged the constitutional validity of the Act and some seeking enforcement of the Act ordered, a three-judge SC bench had on December 12, 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.

“As the matter is sub-judice before this court, we deem it appropriate to direct that no fresh suits may be filed nor registered or proceedings be ordered till further orders of this court. Further, we also direct that in pending suits, the courts would not pass any effective interim orders or final orders including orders of survey till the next date of hearing,” the SC ordered and asked the Centre to file its response in the matter within four weeks.

The 1991 law — brought in by the then P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government during the height of the Ram Temple movement — prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. The dispute relating to Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was kept out of its purview.

There are several cross petitions which seek strict implementation of the 1991 law to maintain communal harmony and to preserve the present status of mosques, which sought to be reclaimed by Hindus on the ground that they were temples before invaders razed them.