SC to hear pleas challenging Places of Worship Act on October 11

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Sep 09, 2022: The Supreme Court will hear pleas challenging the Places of Worship Act on October 11. A three-judge bench will hear the pleas.

The top court has issued a notice on petitions challenging the Places of Worship Act.

 

One of the petitioner’s counsel said Kashi and Mathura courts were giving verdicts interpreting the Places of Worship Act.

However, the Chief Justice of India (CJI), UU Lalit, said the top court cannot stay proceedings in Kashi and Mathura.

“Let those proceedings continue,” he said.

The CJI noted that the Centre has not given any response so far in the pleas challenging the Places of Worship Act provisions.

Also, the Solicitor General has asked for time to file a reply.

All parties have been asked to file written submissions within five pages. “Considering the issues involved in the matter, the matter is eminently suitable to be heard by a bench of three judges,” the court said.

The daughter of the erstwhile King of Varanasi on Thursday approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to be heard as an intervenor in the batch of petitions challenging the Places of Worship Act 1991.

Maharaja Kumari Krishna Priya, the daughter of Kashi Naresh Vibhuti Narayan Singh and the current titular head of the erstwhile royal family of Kashi, has filed the application stating that since the former ruler of the princely state of Kashi was the Chief Patron of all temples in Kashi, she, on behalf of the Kashi royal family, has the locus to challenge the vires of the Act on grounds of violation of Articles 25, 26, 29 and 32 of the Constitution.

“The Places of Worship Act deprives directly affected parties from approaching courts of law to reclaim occupied religious sites through an evidence-based judicial process," the application states.

Courtesy: India Today