The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has moved the Supreme Court seeking the dismissal of a plea which challenges the validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991.
The Places of Worship Act prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and the petition against the Act was filed by Supreme Court advocate, BJP leader and hate speech accused Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
The top court had in March 2021 issued notice to the Union government on the plea filed by Hindutva politician Upadhyay, seeking that sections 2, 3, 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 be set aside on grounds including that these provisions take away the right of a judicial remedy to reclaim a place of worship of any person or a religious group.
The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind’s petition said that entertaining the plea against the Act will open floodgates of litigations against “countless mosques in the country”.
“There is a list of numerous mosques which is doing the rounds on social media, alleging that the mosques were built allegedly by destroying Hindu temples. Needless to say, that if the present petition is entertained, it will open floodgates of litigation against countless mosques in the country and the religious divide from which the country is recovering in the aftermath of the Ayodhya dispute will only be widened,” read the statement.
“This court has categorically held that the law cannot be used as a device to reach back in time and provide a legal remedy to every person who disagrees with the course which history has taken and that the courts of today cannot take cognizance of historical rights and wrongs unless it is shown that their legal consequences are enforceable in the present,” it added.
“In fact, this court categorically held that this court cannot entertain claims that from actions of the Mughal rulers against Hindu Places of Worship in a court of law today,” it said.
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