Supreme Court bars fresh pleas on Places of Worship Act
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New Delhi: As piles of fresh petitions are filed in the matter relating to the Places of Worship Act, 1991, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna expressed displeasure, saying that there has to be an end to it.
Hearing a petition on Monday morning, in which the petitioner prayed that the law should be maintained so that everyone could live in peace, the court responded.
Places of Worship Act of 1991 stops cases from being filed to claim a place of worship or change its character, as the law mandates that places of worship should remain as they were when India became independent on August 15, 1947. However, the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute was out of its purview.
"Enough is enough. There has to be an end to this," NDTV quoted the court.
However, the court allowed the filing of an intervention petition with additional grounds.
The top court is hearing multiple petitions on the validity of the Places of Worship Act by groups who make claims on Muslim religious structures that they were Hindu temples before.
It was Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay who filed the original petition in the top court challenging the validity of the act, but the court stopped proceedings into 18 lawsuits by Hindu parties seeking to claim 10 mosques and tagged all matters together last year. This includes disputes between the Shahi Idgah-Krishna Janmbhoomi, Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque, and Sambhal mosque.
Meanwhile, top opposition parties, including Congress, during whose regime the act was implemented, and AIMIM, filed petitions demanding its strict implementation.
