NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted two weeks to the Centre to respond in pleas challenging the constitutionality of provisions of the Places of Worship Act, 1991, a law that protects the identity and character of religious places as existed on August 15, 1947. A bench of CJI UU Lalit, Justices Ajay Rastogi and SR Bhat asked the Centre to file its reply by October 31, posting the matter for November 14.
Stressing the fact that when the validity of parliamentary law is under challenge, the court is guided by the Centre’s stand, CJI Lalit asked how much more time the Centre wanted to file its response.
Submitting that the government was considering its response, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the court to grant two more weeks.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi asserted that the law was passed without a debate and that certain questions were not considered by the SC in the Ayodhya verdict that upheld the validity of the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The court in the Ayodhya verdict had held that law cannot be used as a device to reach back in time and provide a legal remedy to every person disagreeing with the course that history has taken.
The CJI asked Solicitor General as to what his “personal” views were on the impact of the Ayodhya judgment on the present pleas.
“In my opinion, it may not be covered. It cannot be coloured by this side or that side,” Mehta submitted.
A plea has urged the court to declare sections 2, and 3, which criminalise ‘conversion’ of a place of worship for one religion or sect into another and also section 4 which says worship will be determined on the basis of the situation that existed on August 15 1947.