New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (February 17) deferred to April first week the hearing on a bunch of pleas related to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 mandating to maintain the religious character of a place as it existed on August 15, 1947
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, while deferring the matter, said the pleas concerning the 1991 law would be heard be a three-judge bench.
Pending petitions without notices stand dismissed with liberty to file an application raising additional grounds: Apex Court
The bench said any pending writ petitions in the matter in which notice has not been issued would stand as dismissed and granted liberty to such petitioners to file applications raising fresh grounds.
“We are constrained to pass this order after taking note of the number of fresh petitions filed. The pending writ petitions, which have no notices, stand dismissed with liberty to file an application raising additional grounds, if any. The new IA will only be allowed if there is any new point or new legal issue that has not been raised in the pending petitions,” the bench said.
A three-judge bench earlier on December 12 last year heard the matter, in which it had restrained all courts in the country from passing any interim or final orders on pending petitions seeking to reclaim religious places.
There is a limit to which petitions can be filed, apex court earlier in the day said
Earlier in the day, the bench expressed its displeasure over several petitions being filed in the matter and said that it may not take up the matter today as it was sitting in a combination of two judges.
“There is a limit to which petitions can be filed. So many IAs (interim applications) have been filed… we might not be able to take it up”, CJI Khanna said earlier in the day and indicated that the date may be given in March after senior advocate Indira Jaising, who appeared for a litigant, mentioned a fresh plea before the bench for hearing during the day.
CJI-led bench last week, while ordering the listing of a plea filed by Samajwadi Party leader and Kairana MP Iqra Choudhary with other pending pleas on the 1991 law on February 17 without issuing a notice, had said, “Why are so many new petitions being filed? Every week we get one.”
Apex court is seized of several pleas on Places of Worship Act
The top court is seized of of several petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the 1991 Act, including Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay and former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy.
Several pleas for impleadment have been filed against pleas challenging 1991 law
Several pleas for impleadment into the pending matter have been filed against the pleas challenging the Places of Worship Act, including pleas filed by Gyanvapi Mosque Management Committee, Varanasi, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, Indian National Congress, SP MP Iqra Choudhary, CPI (M) through politburo member Prakash Karat, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi and others.
