SC gives more time to Centre to file response on pleas against Places of Worship Act

The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Union government time till February-end to file its response to pleas questioning the validity of the 1991 Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act which sought to maintain the character of religious places as prevailed on August 15, 1947.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha granted further time to the Centre on a request by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

He said the court may fix a date for hearing the matter and the Centre could file its reply by then.

The top court had issued notice to the Union government on March 12, 2021 on a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and others. Mehta had earlier sought time on several occasions to clarify the Union government's position on the issue.

Read | A door opened to endless disputes

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the NGO All India Muslim Personal Law Board raised preliminary objections to the plea, saying a PIL can't be entertained when there were observations by the Constitution bench in the matter. He was referring to the Ayodhya case judgement of November 2019, which stated, "In preserving the character of places of public worship, Parliament has mandated in no uncertain terms that history and its wrongs shall not be used as instruments to oppress the present and the future".

Opposing the submission, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for Upadhyay, contended the instant case related to challenge to the validity of the law and not the observations by the Supreme Court.

Advocate Vrinda Grover, representing Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, questioned the validity of pending matters, including of Gyanvapi mosque, even though the Centre has yet not filed its response in the matter.

The court said the objections would be considered when the matter is taken up for hearing.