Congress files petition in SC to defend Places of Worship Act

New Delhi: Congress on Thursday has filed an intervention plea in the Supreme Court against petitions challenging the 1991 Places of Worship Special Provisions Act, Bar and Bench reported.

The move came as part of a public interest litigation brought by Bharatiya Janata Party politician Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay contesting the Act's constitutional validity. The Act forbids altering the religious character of houses of worship that existed on August 15, 1947.

According to Bar and Bench, the Congress' motion claims that the Act is critical to protecting secularism in India and that the challenge against it appears to be a motivated attempt to undermine the country's secular ideals.

“The applicant seeks to intervene in this matter to emphasise the constitutional and societal significance of the POWA, as it apprehends that any alterations to it could jeopardise India’s communal harmony and secular fabric thereby threatening the sovereignty and integrity of the nation,” the Congress said in its application.

The Opposition party underlined its commitment to secularism, claiming that it played a crucial role in adopting the law while it and the Janata Dal possessed a majority in the Lok Sabha.

Congress maintained that it should be able to intervene and defend the legality of the Act's passage because it was responsible for introducing and passing the law through its elected members.

The party said that the Places of Worship Act is critical for communal unity and that Upadhyay's application was filed with questionable motivations, Scroll.in reported.

“The present petition also erroneously states that the POWA is discriminatory as it is applicable only towards members of the Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist communities,” the application read. “A bare perusal of the POWA shows that it promotes equality amongst all religious groups and does not accord special treatment towards specific communities as alleged by the petitioner.”

The party expressed concern that alterations to the Act could undermine communal peace, secular fabric, and damage the country's sovereignty and integrity.

While the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind had previously requested to be joined as a party to Upadhyay's petition, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi has also petitioned the Supreme Court for the Act's implementation.

In December, the Supreme Court prohibited trial courts from issuing orders, including survey directions, in pending cases over the religious character of places of worship. It also stated that no new suits could be filed in any court in the country until further orders were issued while it heard a number of petitions contesting the Act's constitutional validity.

The ruling was issued in response to growing concerns about the increasing number of lawsuits filed by Hindu groups claiming ownership of mosques and dargahs. In November, Hindu and Muslim groups clashed when a trial court ordered a survey of the 16th-century Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal. Five people were killed in the violence.