Satya Prakash
New Delhi, December 7
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjeev Khanna has constituted a three-judge special bench to hear the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship (Special Arrangements) Act, 1991, which will hear the petitions on December 12. will be done The Act prohibits the conversion of any place of worship except the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid at Ayodhya and mandates that the character of all places of worship be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947.
Apart from the CJI, two more judges Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice KV Viswanathan have been included in this bench. Some six petitions, including petitions filed by lawyer Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay and former Rajya Sabha member Subramaniam Swamy against some provisions of the Act, are pending in the Supreme Court since 2020.
The petitioners alleged that the August 15, 1947 “arbitrary and illogical background cut-off” to preserve the character of places of worship or places of pilgrimage against encroachment by “radical-tyrant invaders and law-breakers” through the 1991 Act. date” is created.
In this regard, the Shahi Eidgah Mosque at Mathura; Quwat-ul-Islam Mosque, Qutab Minar, Delhi; Kamal Maula Masjid, Bhojshala Complex, Madhya Pradesh; Bija Mandal Masjid, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh; Teelawali Masjid, Lucknow; Ajmer Sharif Dargah, Rajasthan; Jama Masjid and Dargah of Sufi Saint Sheikh Salim Chishti in Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh; Baba Budangiri Dargah, Hosakoti, Karnataka; Badruddin Shah Dargah, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh; Atala Masjid, Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh; Pirana Dargah, Gujarat; Jama Masjid, Bhopal; Hazrat Shah Ali Dargah, Telangana and Ladle Mashak Dargah, Karnataka etc. are named after the controversies.