Congress challenge Places of Worship
The Congress party has moved the Supreme Court to oppose the petitions challenging provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, news agency ANI reported on Thursday, January 16.
The party has moved an intervention application in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay against the constitutional validity of the Act.
The application said that the Act is essential to safeguard secularism in India, and the challenge against it appears to be a motivated and malicious attempt to undermine established principles of secularism.
“The Applicant seeks to intervene in this matter to emphasise the constitutional and societal significance of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, as it apprehends that any alterations to it could jeopardise India’s communal harmony and secular fabric, thereby threatening the sovereignty and integrity of the nation,” the Congress party said in its application before the Supreme Court, according to legal news website Bar and Bench.
Places of Worship Act
The Places of Worship Act was passed in 1991, during then-prime minister PV Narasimha Rao’s regime. In the petition, the Congress party says that it stands committed to the principles of secularism and was instrumental in enacting the law when the party along with the Janata Dal were in the majority in the Lok Sabha.
“Since the Applicant, through its elected members were responsible for the introduction and passage of the POWA, the applicant may be allowed to intervene and defend the legal validity of the passage of the POWA,” it says.
The Congress party’s petition comes as the top court is all set to hear pleas questioning the constitutionality of the Act. The side opposing it argues certain provisions of the Act are against the Hindus.
Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind approached the SC seeking to make itself a party to Ashwini Upadhyay’s petition challenging the Places of Worship Act. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) head, Asaduddin Owaisi, has also moved the Supreme Court to seek implementation of the Act.
In December 2024, the top court directed trial courts to refrain from issuing any substantive orders or conducting surveys of existing religious structures in cases challenging their religious character, pending the outcome of the challenge to the Act.
Any alterations to the Act could jeopardise India’s communal harmony and secular fabric thereby threatening the sovereignty and integrity of the nation.
The Court also ordered that in pending suits (such as those concerning the Gyanvapi mosque, Mathura Shahi Idgah, Sambhal Jama Masjid, etc.), the courts should not pass effective interim or final orders, including orders for a survey.