Union Government to File Counter-Affidavit in Petitions Challenging Places of Worship Act

https://theleaflet.in/opinion/the-challenge-to-places-of-worship-special-provisions-act-1991-is-misconceived

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing on several petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 on Monday. The bench was led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. This was done because the Union Government requested some time from the Supreme Court to file a counter-affidavit. The Government has been given time till December 12 to submit its counter-affidavit of facts.

The subject of the petitions is not the entire Act, but the portion that forbids recourse against unauthorized intrusion on sites of religion and pilgrim, before August 1947. The following were some of the issues brought up in Court and taken into consideration:

1. Is parliament authorized to pass it since the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 is under state legislative purview?

2. Is Article 14 of the Constitution infringed by such an action?

3. Does the term ‘destroyed’ amount to ‘conversion’ in the sense that the term is defined in the Act?

This is important to discuss because the lawsuits were seeking the rebuilding and restoration of the temples that the Mughal invaders ‘destroyed’.

Thus, to make it fair for both sides, the Supreme Court has decided to give some time to the Union Government in filing the counter affidavit, i.e. till December 12, so that it will make the future judicial procedure more easeful and more vindictive. [Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India and Others., (2020) 7 SCC 693]