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The Supreme Court on December 12 prohibited civil courts nationwide from filing new lawsuits challenging the ownership and title of any place of worship and from ordering surveys of disputed religious places until further notice. The bench, led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and including Justices P. V. Sanjay Kumar and K. V. Viswanathan, was reviewing petitions that challenge the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship Act, 1991.
1. The Supreme Court’s order applies to both ongoing civil suits and any that may be filed in the future. It prohibits civil courts from “registering” cases. As a result, these courts cannot order surveys or request reports from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), as they have done in several recent cases.
2. All these civil cases have raised questions on the title of mosques, arguing that they were built on Hindu religious structures that were razed by medieval rulers. The SC also observed that court orders in these civil suits could be challenged on the grounds that they violate larger constitutional principles of secularism and the rule of law, irrespective of the Places of Worship Act.
3. The Supreme Court will hear the constitutional challenge to the 1991 Act. These petitions have been pending since 2020. It is yet to be seen whether the Centre will defend the law or argue against it.
4. The petitioners have challenged the law on two main grounds.
(i) First, that it takes away the power of judicial review by abating claims that existed at the time of passing the law and prohibiting fresh claims in courts.
(ii) Second, that it is arbitrary in retrospectively picking August 15, 1947 as the cut-off date for determining the religious character of a place of worship.
1. The Places of Worship Act, 1991, was brought in the wake of the Ayodhya movement. It prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
2. Section 3 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act bars the conversion, in full or part, of a place of worship of any religious denomination into a place of worship of a different religious denomination — or even a different segment of the same religious denomination.
3. Section 4(1) ensures that the religious identity of a place of worship remains unchanged from its state on August 15, 1947.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. In 2019, in the five-judge Constitution Bench ruling in the Ayodhya case, the SC had referred to the 1991 law as forming a part of the “basic structure of the Constitution”. While the 1991 law was not directly under challenge in that case, the SC observations could still be relevant in determining the constitutional validity of the law.
1. The Doctrine of Basic Structure is a form of judicial review that is used to test the legality of any legislation by the courts.
2. The doctrine was evolved by the Supreme Court in the 1973 landmark ruling in Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala. In a 7-6 verdict, a 13-judge Constitution Bench ruled that the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution is inviolable, and could not be amended by Parliament.
3. If a law is found to “damage or destroy” the “basic features of the Constitution”, the Court declares it unconstitutional.
4. In the Kesavananda ruling, the Supreme Court cited several aspects of the Constitution that could be identified as “basic features” of the document but added that it was not an exhaustive list. For example, judicial review, rule of law, federalism, and democratic republic structure are identified as basic features.
5. In the 2015 ruling where the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act and the related Constitutional Amendment, “judicial independence” was identified as a basic feature of the Constitution.
(Sources: 1991 Places of Worship Act: What Supreme Court stopped, why, The Places of Worship Act, 1991, and why it continues to be invoked, V-P Jagdeep Dhankhar sparks debate with remarks on Basic Structure of Constitution)
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