Dispute Over Temples and Mosques Increasing: Supreme Court to Hear Petition on Places of Worship Act, 1991

The dispute over temples and mosques is increasing in different parts of the country. Recently, after the order of the court, a survey of the Jama Masjid located in Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh was conducted, after which fierce violence spread. Amidst all this, now the Supreme Court has indicated a hearing on the petition related to the safety of places of worship and the law made in 1991.

The Supreme Court has indicated a hearing on the petition filed related to the safety of places of worship and the law made in 1991 on December 4 next month. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna will hear this important case.

A bench of Supreme Court Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice P Narasimha and Justice Manoj Mishra will hear the petitions related to the safety of places of worship and the law made in 1991. The names of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind and Gulzar Ahmed Noor Mohammad Azmi are listed as petitioners in the case. His lawyer Ejaz Maqbool will present his case before the court.

The Places of Worship Act of 1991 in the country provided that the religious place would be maintained in the same form as it was at the time of independence. The Places of Worship Act is a law that prohibits changing the form of any place of worship that existed on 15 August 1947. To end the dispute over the ownership of religious places, the Congress government led by then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had kept the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, which was going on for decades, as the only exception in this law. Section 3 of this law prohibits any person or group of people from converting, fully or partially, a place of worship of any religious sect into a place of worship of a different religious sect.