From the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in Rajasthan to the Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal, a number of mosques and Muslim shrines throughout the nation have been the topic of courtroom petitions filed final month looking for surveys of the buildings, following claims that they had been constructed after “demolishing Hindu and Jain temples”.
That is much like claims made in different circumstances just like the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, allegedly constructed on the location of a demolished a part of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, and the Shahi Idgah in Mathura, which Hindu teams argue was constructed over Lord Krishna’s birthplace.
The petitions and the controversies they’ve sparked have introduced The Locations of Worship (Particular Provisions) Act, 1991, and its interpretation into the limelight.
The 1991 Act states that the spiritual character of anywhere of worship because it existed on August 15, 1947, have to be maintained. A long time later, it continues to be invoked and challenged each time a battle over the spiritual character of a construction is introduced earlier than courts.
In regards to the Locations of Worship Act
The Locations of Worship (Particular Provisions) Act, 1991, was introduced in by the then Congress authorities led by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao amid heightened communal tensions throughout the top of the Ram Janmabhoomi motion.
Part of the Congress’s 1991 election manifesto, the Invoice was launched within the Lok Sabha by then house minister S B Chavan with the target of “prohibiting conversion of locations of worship and to offer for the upkeep of their spiritual character because it existed on August 15, 1947”.
After introducing the Invoice, Chavan stated, “I’m certain that enactment of this Invoice will go a good distance in serving to restore communal amity and goodwill.”
Part 3 of the Act particularly prohibits the conversion, in full or half, of a spot of worship from one spiritual denomination to a different and even inside completely different segments of the identical denomination.
Part 4(1) ensures that the spiritual identification of a spot of worship stays unchanged from its state on August 15, 1947.
Part 4(3) excludes historic and historic monuments, archaeological websites, and stays ruled by the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Websites and Stays Act of 1958. It additionally doesn’t apply to disputes that had been already settled or these resolved by means of mutual settlement, nor to conversions that occurred earlier than the Act’s enactment.
Part 5 stipulates that the Act shall not apply to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case or any associated authorized proceedings, permitting for the eventual development of the Ram Temple.
A former CJI’s observations and a row
With the latest petitions and the following court-ordered survey sparking controversies and violence – 4 folks had been killed in Sambhal after the survey crew confirmed up on the mosque – the Congress “reiterated its firmest dedication to the Locations of Worship Act, 1991”. This got here after get together basic secretary Jairam Ramesh stated that the oral observations made by former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud in Could 2022 appeared to have opened a “Pandora’s field”.
Chandrachud had stated that though one couldn’t “alter or convert the character of the (spiritual) place” underneath the 1991 legislation, the “ascertainment of a non secular character of a spot… could not essentially fall foul of the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 (of the Act)”, which means an inquiry into the spiritual identification of a spot because it stood on August 15, 1947, was permissible.
Since then, Hindu teams have filed petitions requesting surveys of mosques to find out what initially stood on the spot. In the meantime, petitions difficult the Act are pending earlier than the Supreme Courtroom.
