SC to listen to AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s plea on locations of worship legislation

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
| Picture Credit score: ANI

The Supreme Court docket is scheduled to listen to on Thursday (January 2, 2025) a plea of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi looking for implementation of the 1991 locations of worship legislation, which asks to take care of the spiritual character of a spot because it existed on August 15, 1947.

Lawyer and MP Owaisi, who heads the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, filed the plea on December 17, 2024, via advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi.

On December 12, nonetheless, a Bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna whereas appearing on a batch of comparable pleas towards the 1991 legislation, restrained all courts from entertaining contemporary fits and passing any interim or closing orders in pending instances looking for to reclaim spiritual locations, significantly mosques and dargahs.

“Because the matter is sub-judice on this court docket, we deem it acceptable that no contemporary go well with can be registered and proceedings are undertaken until additional orders of this court docket,” the CJI-led Bench had stated.

Because of this, the highest court docket stalled the proceedings in about 18 lawsuits filed by numerous Hindu events looking for surveys to determine the unique spiritual character of 10 mosques, together with Gyanvapi at Varanasi, Shahi Idgah Masjid at Mathura apart from Shahi Jama Masjid at Sambhal the place 4 individuals’ lives had been snuffed out in clashes.

The particular Bench, additionally comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and Ok.V. Viswanathan, was listening to about six petitions, together with the lead one filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, difficult numerous provisions of the Locations of Worship (Particular Provisions) Act, 1991.

One of many contentions was that the provisions took away the fitting of judicial treatment to reclaim a spot of worship of any individual or a non secular group.

The 1991 legislation prohibits conversion of anywhere of worship and offers for the upkeep of the spiritual character of anywhere of worship because it existed on August 15, 1947.

Mr. Owaisi, in his plea, has sought a course to the Centre to make sure efficient implementation of the legislation, stated his counsel.

He additionally referred to situations the place a number of courts had ordered survey of mosques on pleas by Hindu litigants, he stated. It’s doubtless that the highest court docket would on January 2 tag Mr. Owaisi’s plea with the pending issues for listening to.

Pleas of the Muslim facet have additionally sought strict implementation of the 1991 legislation to take care of communal concord and to protect the current standing of mosques, sought to be reclaimed by the Hindus facet saying temples existed in these locations earlier than invaders razed them.

The Gyanvapi Mosque administration committee had moved the apex court docket to oppose a number of pending petitions that problem the constitutional validity of the 1991 legislation.

It listed a sequence of contentious claims made through the years regarding numerous mosques and dargahs, together with the Shahi Idgah Masjid in Mathura, the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque close to Delhi’s Qutub Minar, the Kamal Maula Mosque in Madhya Pradesh, and others.

The petitions difficult the legislation had been filed with “mischievous intent” to facilitate lawsuits towards these spiritual websites, which the 1991 Act at present protected, the committee stated.