Activists and politicians have been blaming former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for his situation in Sambhal that led to the killing of at least five Muslims on Sunday. Uttar Pradesh Police fired on locals protesting the court-ordered survey of Shahi Jama Masjid in the Western UP town over a petition claiming a temple was demolished to build the mosque.
Critics accuse Chandrachud of opening the floodgates of the Places of Worship Act, of 1991, with his Gyanvapi judgment. They argue this has made it easier for lower courts with Hindutva inclinations to order investigations into the existence of temples beneath mosques.
Tensions erupted after locals resisted the court-ordered survey team, accompanied by a Hindutva mob led to clashes with police. Widespread public outrage has arisen against what is being termed a state-sponsored killing of Muslims.
“Chandrachuds legacy: Gyanvapi, Mathura Eidgah, now Sambhal Mosque….5 young lives lost in police firing. Is the former CJI listening? Does he care??” wrote Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Subhashini Ali on X.
The Places of Worship Act 1991, is an Act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The act had been passed against the backdrop of communal strife that had enveloped India in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.
The criticism arose due to his involvement in judicial decisions that were believed to have opened the door for actions like the survey of Shahi Jama Masjid, following Hindutva groups’ allegation that the Mughals demolished a temple to build the historic mosque.
In August 2023, The Supreme Court Bench comprising CJI D.Y. Chandrachud allowed the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises, rejecting the contention of the Muslim litigants.
The survey was first ordered by a Varanasi district court on July 21 on a petition by a group of Hindu litigants seeking the right to hold prayers inside the mosque compound.
During the hearing on the Gyanvapi case, in October 2023, Chandrachud had orally remarked in court, in response to the contention that the Gyanvapi suit was barred by the 1991 act: “The Act says you can’t alter or convert the nature of the place. They’re not seeking conversion of the place. The question is what is the status of the place as of August 15, 1947.”
This is in contrast to the stance on the 1991 act taken in the Ayodhya judgment, which was co-signed by Chandrachud.
In August 2021, five Hindu devotees filed a plea before a Varanasi civil court seeking permission to offer daily prayers at the Gyanvapi mosque, which the devotees claimed housed several Hindu deities.
When this was appealed by the mosque committee, the Supreme Court, on May 17 last year, directed that Muslims be allowed to access and worship in the mosque. It also transferred the case to a district court in Varanasi, ordering the court to decide first on the maintainability of the suit.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, in 2020, also filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the 1991 law.
In 2022, CJI Chandrachud-led Supreme Court bench accepted the petition challenging the constitutionality of the Act. The bench also granted the Union government more time to file an affidavit in response to the petition.
While hearing the plea in July 2023, A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice Manoj Misra said that it cannot take recourse to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 for ordering a blanket stay on various suits and legal proceedings that remain pending in different courts across countries.
In December 2023 also, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Allahabad High Court’s order allowing a survey to be conducted at the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh to examine whether the mosque is built on a temple. Earlier, the Supreme Court had greenlit a similar survey to be carried out at the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi by refusing to interfere in the Allahabad High Court’s order permitting the same.
Many journalists, academics and lawyers have alleged that D.Y. Chandrachud has made it easier for anyone to demand a survey of mosques, thereby paving the way for turmoil by weakening the Places of Worship Act, of 1991, which was intended to provide closure to such disputes.
