Places of Worship Act: Justice Chandrachud, Supreme Court Judge who approved the law, to be a part of Court Hearing

An important hearing is going to be held in the Supreme Court on Tuesday in the Gyanvapi Masjid case. In the petition, the Masjid Committee has termed the order of the Varanasi court to survey the mosque as a violation of the Places of Worship Act. Now the bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha will hear the matter in the Supreme Court. The special thing is that Justice DY Chandrachud was included in the five-judge bench that delivered the verdict in the historic Ayodhya case on 9 November 2019, which had stamped the Places of Worship Act 1991, calling it a good law. In fact, in July 2021, the Supreme Court had agreed to test the validity of the 1991 Places of Worship Act (Places of Worship Act). The court had issued a notice to the Government of India in this matter and sought its response.

BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, in her PIL, has sought to repeal the Places of Worship Act so that the mistakes of history are rectified and the places of worship and religious practices of other religions have been created by Islamic rulers in the past. Pilgrimage sites were demolished and Islamic structures were built on them so that they could be handed back to those who deserved them.

Ashwini Upadhyay has said in his petition that the provisions of the Places of Worship Act 1991 are arbitrary and unconstitutional. The said provision violates Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26, and 29 of the Constitution. The Places of Worship Act 1991 interferes with the Right to Equality, Right to Life, and Right to Religious Freedom in the Constitution. The central government has made this law by going out of its jurisdiction. Worship and religious subjects are state subjects and the central government has made arbitrary laws on this matter.