Balancing faith and law: The Places of Worship Act, 1991, and why it continues to be invoked

The petitions and the controversies they have sparked have brought The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, and its interpretation into the limelight.

The 1991 Act states that the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, must be maintained. Decades later, it continues to be invoked and challenged every time a conflict over the religious character of a structure is brought before courts.

About the Places of Worship Act

The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, was brought in by the then Congress government led by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao amid heightened communal tensions during the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

A part of the Congress’s 1991 election manifesto, the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by then home minister S B Chavan with the objective of “prohibiting conversion of places of worship and to provide for the maintenance of their religious character as it existed on August 15, 1947”.

After introducing the Bill, Chavan said, “I am sure that enactment of this Bill will go a long way in helping restore communal amity and goodwill.”

Section 3 of the Act specifically prohibits the conversion, in full or part, of a place of worship from one religious denomination to another or even within different segments of the same denomination.

Section 4(1) ensures that the religious identity of a place of worship remains unchanged from its state on August 15, 1947.

Section 4(3) excludes ancient and historical monuments, archaeological sites, and remains governed by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958. It also does not apply to disputes that were already settled or those resolved through mutual agreement, nor to conversions that occurred before the Act’s enactment.

Section 5 stipulates that the Act shall not apply to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case or any related legal proceedings, allowing for the eventual construction of the Ram Temple.

A former CJI’s observations and a row

With the recent petitions and the subsequent court-ordered survey sparking controversies and violence – four people were killed in Sambhal after the survey team showed up at the mosque – the Congress “reiterated its firmest commitment to the Places of Worship Act, 1991”. This came after party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the oral observations made by former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud in May 2022 seemed to have opened a “Pandora’s box”.

Chandrachud had said that although one could not “alter or convert the nature of the (religious) place” under the 1991 law, the “ascertainment of a religious character of a place… may not necessarily fall foul of the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 (of the Act)”, meaning an inquiry into the religious identity of a place as it stood on August 15, 1947, was permissible.

Since then, Hindu groups have filed petitions requesting surveys of mosques to determine what originally stood at the spot. Meanwhile, petitions challenging the Act are pending before the Supreme Court.