In plea to SC, Mosque panel urges to close Centre's right

In plea to SC, Mosque panel urges to close Centre's right

New Delhi: The Shahi Masjid Committee of Mathura has moved the Supreme Court criticising the Union government for not filing its response to petitions challenging the Places of Worship Act despite four opportunities given by the court to do so in the last four years.

In an application filed before the top court where a batch of petitions questioning the 1991 Act’s legal validity are pending for a decision, the committee alleged that the Centre is deliberately not filing its counter to the challenge. Blaming it for delaying the hearing in the matter, it said that the Centre intends to prolong the hearing, thereby obstructing those, who are against the challenge, from filing their submissions.

The six-page application highlights the significance of Centre’s take on the issue and emphasised that its viewpoint would have a bearing on the stand the opposing parties would take. The mosque committee urged the court to close the Centre’s right to file a reply.

Passed by Parliament on 18 September, 1991, the Act prohibits conversion of any place of worship and maintains the original character of such religious sites as they were at the time of Independence.

The only exception was the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. The law was enacted at the time when the Ayodhya agitation had gained momentum and the land dispute between the two communities had turned contentious following the desecration of the Babri masjid mosque.

In 2020, a set of petitions filed in the top court argued that the law infringes upon the rights of Hindus to practice their faith and since it favors a particular community, it violates the principle of secularism. It has been pointed out that the Act prohibits courts from adjudicating in particular cases. This clause, the petitioners have argued, offends their right to seek a judicial review.

Meanwhile, several Muslim organisations have filed applications wanting to become intervenors in the case so that the top court hears them before passing its final orders. The Congress party, too, has moved an intervention application, opposing the plea to strike down the Act.

Currently, Mathura’s Shahi Edgah Mosque is at the centre of 7 suits in the Allahabad High Court where Hindu worshippers have pleaded for a survey to determine the character of the religious place of worship. The mosque, according to these applicants, was built over Krishna Janm Sthan (birth place of Krishna).

In its application, the mosque management committee disclosed that notice to the Centre on the batch of petitions demanding dissolution of the Act was issued in March 2021. More than a year later, on 9 September, 2022, the top court noticed that Centre had not filed its counter pursuant to the notice issued in the preceding year. The Centre was given two weeks, it added.

The Centre, the panel submitted, failed to submit its response within the time frame and when the matter was heard on 12 October, 2022, it was given another opportunity to place its stand by 31 October.

While the Centre again breached the top court directive, the matter remained in cold storage for more than two years. It was only on 12 December, 2024 that a bench was constituted to hear the matter, after Justice Sanjiv Khanna took oath as the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

Observing that the Centre had not filed its reply for over three years, the CJI-led bench asked it to file a common response to the batch of petitions within four weeks.

This deadline was over but the Centre has yet again failed to file its response, the mosque panel said.

The apex court is likely to hear the matter on 17 February, and it is expected to take up the application.

In December, the CJI-led bench put a pause to pending suits where Hindu worshippers have moved trial courts demanding surveys of mosques on the ground that they have been built after demolishing temples. Civil courts were directed to not register new suits or pass effective orders in pending cases, though the proceedings were allowed to continue in the cases. The SC also restrained the trial courts from passing any interim or final orders in pending suits.

The SC order came days after Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district was rocked by violence after a survey was conducted of the Jama Masjid mosque there, pursuant to trial court directions.