Samajwadi Party MP moves SC seeking implementation of Places of Worship Act

Samajwadi Party MP Iqra Choudhary has approached the Supreme Court demanding that the Places of Worship Act be implemented “in letter and spirit”, Live Law reported. The bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar on Friday tagged the case to connected petitions.

When Choudhary’s plea was taken up, the chief justice verbally remarked: “Why so many new petitions are being filed? Every week we get one.”

The Act prohibits altering the religious character of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947. It bars courts from entertaining suits seeking to alter the status of these sites.

The only exception to the rule is the Ram temple in Ayodhya, built over the remains of the Babri Masjid which was demolished by Hindutva extremists in 1992.

In 2020, the lead petition challenging the Places of Worship Act was filed. A year later, the court issued notice to the Union government on the petition. Subsequently, several similar pleas were filed against the statute.

In December, the managing committee of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi moved the court in support of the Act. The Congress also moved an application in support of the Act in January.

‘Risk of communal tensions’

Iqra Choudhary, in her writ petition before the Supreme Court, contended that repeated lawsuits targeting Muslim places of worship, followed...

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