New Delhi: Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti, an organisation of 127 sects of Sanatan Dharm, has filed an intervention application before the Supreme Court challenging the validity of certain provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits the filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947.
The plea said that Sections 3 and 4 of the 1991 Act are unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26 and 29 of the Constitution of India because the impugned provisions prevent judicial review, a basic feature of the Indian Constitution, give an arbitrary cut off date in complete disregard of historical facts and injustices, infringes upon the religious rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs, violate the principle of secularism, and favour one particular community over other communities.
It contended that the law has barred the remedies against illegal encroachment on the places of worship and pilgrimages and therefore now Hindu and other religious followers cannot file a suit and won’t be able to restore their places of worship and pilgrimage, and illegal act of invaders will continue in perpetuity.
“When the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991 came into force, the Central Government has created arbitrary, irrational, retrospective cutoff date to declare that character of places of worship/pilgrimage shall be maintained as it was on 15.8.1947 and no suit or proceeding shall lie in the Court in respect of disputes against encroachment done by fundamentalist barbaric invaders and lawbreakers and such proceeding shall stand abated,” said the intervention application filed through advocate Atulesh Kumar.
It further said that the Centre can neither close the doors of lower courts, appellate courts and Constitutional courts for aggrieved citizens of the country nor can take away the power of High Courts and the Supreme Court, conferred under Articles 226 and 32 of the Constitution of India.
“The injury caused to Hindus and other religious followers of the country is writ large because Sections 3 and 4 of the Act has taken away the right to approach the Courts and thus right to judicial remedy has been closed. This is totally against the principle of natural justice,” argued the plea.
As per the application, the impugned law not only offends the right to pray, practice, and prorogate religion (Article 25), the right to manage, maintain, and administer places of worship-pilgrimage (Article 26), the right to conserve culture (Article 29) but also contrary to government’s duty to protect historic places (Article 49) and preserve religious cultural heritage (Article 51A).
The Sant Samiti is an organisation that works for the cause of seers, Mutts and temples. Swami Jeetendranand Sarswatee is the General Secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti. As per the computerised case status, the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Places of Worship Act is tentatively listed for hearing on February 17.
In an interim order passed on December 12, 2024, the CJI Sanjiv Khanna-led Special Bench had ordered that no fresh suits would be registered under the Places of Worship Act in the country, and in the pending cases, no final or effective orders would be passed till further orders.
The Special Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan, had asked the Union government to file within four weeks its reply to the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the 1991 Act.
(IANS)
