New Delhi:
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has expressed his displeasure over piles of new petitions filed in the matter involving the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which stops a lawsuit from being filed to reclaim a place of worship or change its character. “Enough is enough. There has to be an end to this,” he remarked during a hearing this morning and asserted that the Supreme Court will not hear any new petition in this matter.
The court, however, has allowed the filing of an intervention petition with additional grounds though it refused to issue notice on the new petitions filed so far.
The Supreme Court’s tough remarks came as it continued hearing petitions on the validity of the Places of Worship Act, which assumes significance in view of the legal efforts to reclaim demolished Hindu temples.
Read: “People’s Mandate”: Congress Files Top Court Plea In Places Of Worship Case
The law was passed in 1991 to disallow the change of religious character of a place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. The Ram Janmabhoomi dispute was out of its purview.
The original petition on the law’s validity was filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, but the court last year halted proceedings into 18 lawsuits by Hindu parties seeking to reclaim 10 mosques and tagged together all matters related to temple-mosque disputes. This includes the Shahi Idgah-Krishna Janmbhoomi, Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque, and Sambhal mosque disputes.
The move saw several opposition parties making a beeline to the top court in favour of the law while Hindu groups and right-wing outfits opposed it.
Read: Supreme Court Pauses Surveys Of Places Of Worship, Orders Centre To Reply
The Congress, which was in power when the law was passed, and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM are the latest political parties to have moved the Supreme Court seeking that the law be strictly implemented. Another petitioner who appeared in the court on Monday told the court that the law should be upheld since everyone deserves to live peacefully.
During the hearing, the CJI noted it had allowed the filing of new petitions last time, but there must be a limit to such interventions. “Application for fresh interventions will be allowed given it raised some ground which is not raised as yet,” said CJI Khanna.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing the petitioners, also pointed out that a reply is awaited from the Centre.
The hearing has been deferred to the first week of April.
