New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea challenging the validity of a provision of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which preserves the character of religious places as they existed on August 15, 1947. A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar granted the petitioner liberty to file an application in the pending challenge to the Act.
“We are not inclined to entertain the PIL under Article 32. It’s open to the petitioner to file an application,” said the bench.
On February 17, the CJI took exception to the many intervention applications filed in the case and similar writ petitions either challenging the impugned Act or seeking implementation of the Act and said there should be a limit to such applications.
It had then passed a short order clarifying that all fresh petitions in the case would stand dismissed, but these petitioners would have the liberty to file applications raising new grounds in the pending matter. The fresh petition heard today also sought the top court’s direction to allow courts to pass appropriate orders ascertaining the original religious character of a place of worship. The petitioner, Nitin Upadhyay, a law student, has challenged section 4(2) of the Act, which barred proceedings to change the religious character and prohibited the filing of fresh cases for the same.
“The Centre has transgressed its legislative power in barring the judicial remedy, which is a basic feature of the Constitution. It is well established that the right to judicial remedy by filing suit in a competent court cannot be barred, and the power of courts cannot be abridged, and such denial has been held to be violative of basic features of the Constitution, beyond legislative power,” the petition stated. (ANI)
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