PLACES
OF WORSHIP ACT, 1991 - GOVERNANCE
News:
Gyanvapi mosque case
raises a challenge to the Places of Worship Act
What's
in the news?
●
Calls to hand over the Gyanvapi mosque to
the Hindus have come even after appeals by the Anjuman Intazamia Masjid in the
Supreme Court to protect the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991
from becoming a dead letter.
Key
takeaways:
●
The 1991 Act provides a guarantee for the
preservation of the religious character of places of public worship as they
existed on August 15, 1947.
Places
of Worship Act, 1991:
●
The Places of Worship Act, 1991, prohibits "conversion of any place of
worship" and provides "for the maintenance of the religious character
of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August, 1947, and for
matters connected therewith or incidental thereto".
●
Section
3 of
the Act bars the conversion of places of worship. It states, "No person
shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section
thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious
denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section
thereof."
●
Section
4(1) of the Act states that "the religious character
of a place of worship existing on the 15th day of August, 1947 shall continue
to be the same as it existed on that day".
●
Section
4(2)
of the Act further states that "any suit, appeal or other proceeding with
respect to the conversion of the religious character of any place of worship,
existing on the 15th day of August, 1947, is pending before any court, tribunal
or other authority, the same shall abate, and no suit, appeal or other
proceeding with respect to any such matter shall lie on or after such
commencement in any court, tribunal or other authority".
Exemptions:
●
Section
5:
It says that the Act shall not be applied to Ram Janma Bhumi Babri Masjid dispute.
●
Other than that, the Act also exempts:
○
Any place of worship, that is an ancient and historical monument or an archaeological
site. It must be covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites
and Remains Act, 1958.
○
A suit that has been finally settled or disposed of.
○
Any dispute that has been settled by the
parties or conversion of any place that took place by acquiescence before the
Act commenced.
Objectives:
●
To freeze
the status of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
●
To provide for the maintenance of the religious character of such a place of worship
as on that day.
●
To pre-empt new claims by any group about
the past status of any place of worship and attempts to reclaim the structures
or the land on which they stood.
●
The Act also imposes a positive obligation
on the State to maintain the religious character of every place of worship as
it existed at the time of Independence.
●
This legislative obligation on the State
to preserve and protect the equality of
all faiths is an essential secular feature and one of the basic features of
the Indian Constitution.
Concerns:
●
The Act has created arbitrary irrational retrospective cutoff dates
and has barred the remedies against illegal encroachment on the places of
worship and pilgrimages.
●
The Act is unconstitutional and beyond the Parliament’s law-making power.
●
It is against the principle of law ‘ubi
jus ibi remedium (where there is a right, there is a remedy), “thus violating
the concept of justice and Rule of Law, which is the core of Article 14”.
●
Article 13(2) prohibits the State from
making any law which takes away or abridged fundamental rights conferred under
Part-III of the Constitution. But the Act bars the right to seek judicial
review of a grievance.
●
Violates the principles of secularism.
Supreme
Court Observations:
1.
Legislative Instrument: The Court held the Act as a
legislative intervention which imposed a non-derogable obligation towards
enforcing commitment to secularism which is one of the basic features of the
Indian Constitution.
2.
Constitution obligation: The State, by enacting the law,
enforced a constitutional commitment and operationalized its constitutional
obligations to uphold the equality of all religions.
3.
Guarantee to all: The Act has provided guarantee to every
religious community for the preservation of their places of worship as they
existed on 15 August 1947 that furnishes a constitutional basis for healing the
injustices of the past colonial rule.