Challenge To Places Of Worship Act : Supreme Court Gives Further Extension To Centre; Grants Time Till End Of February 2023 For Counter

The Supreme Court on Monday further extended the time for the Union Government to file its counter-affidavit in a batch of petitions challenging the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, which prohibits the conversion of a religious structure from its nature as it stood on the date of independence.

The Court gave time to the Union time till the end of February 2023 to file its affidavit. Earlier, the Apex Court had asked the centre to file its response by 12th December, 2022. Before that,on October 12, the Court had directed the Union to file its counter-affidavit by October 31. Further before, on September 9, the Court had asked the Centre to file its response within 2 weeks.

Today, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha enquired if the Union of India had filed counter in the matter.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta responded– "My lords, kindly fix a date. We may file it before then."

Accordingly, the bench decided to give the union time until the end of February 2023 to file a counter and stated that it would list the matter on a non-miscellaneous day. 

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for AIMPLB, pointed out that the 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court had upheld the Act in the Ayodhya judgment and hence the PILs are not maintainable.

"My lords, I have two points. This is in the nature of a public interest litigation and I can understand if there is a dispute concerning structure. This is an act, legislation in terms of which your lordships in Ram janmabhoomi case had made certain observations. My preliminary objection is this that such petitions cannot lie unless it relates to a particular structure. There cannot be a public interest litigation qua judgement of a court taking a certain view. How do you review the judgement of the court? Before you go into the matter, certain issues have to be dealt with."

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyaya, one of the petitioners, said that the challenge is made against the legislation and not against any observations in the judgment.

The bench recorded in the order that Senior Advocate Sibal sought to raise certain objections pertaining to the maintainability of the petitions and added that such preliminary objections would be considered at the stage of hearing.

Senior Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for Jamia Ulama-i-Hind added–

"In terms of the earlier order, union has placed the position which is not yet on record. We don't know what the union is saying vis-a-vis this legislation. It is a central legislation. While these petitions are pending, there are disputes such as the Gyanvapi mosque, Idgah mosque – which are in direct breach of this statue. While this is pending, the union has not placed anything before this court. At the same time, litigation of all manner has been taken place. What is happening there is that the religious character is sought to be altered."

The bench stated that it would hear the matter on the next date.

Case Title: Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. UoI And Ors. WP(C) No. 1246/2020

Click Here To Read/Download Order