‘Places of Worship Act’ is progressive legislation: AIMPLB

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has filed an application in the Top Court to become party to a petition that challenges the validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which mandated maintaining the character of religious places as prevailed on 15 August 1947.

AIMPLB, in its petition, said the Places of Worship Act, 1991 is progressive legislation in keeping with the secular values of Indian polity and giving content to the right of every religious group to be treated equally by the state and enjoin the state to perform its functions as benevolent neutral in case of tensions between different religious groups.

The Places of Worship Act, 1991 is based on the fundamental features of the Constitution which are unamendable and therefore any attempt to replace the said act or to amend the same annihilating the basic aims and objects or principles on which the said Act is based, would be unconstitutional and thus void, the plea said.

The application referred to the recent suit filed by Hindu women seeking the right to worship at the Gyanvapi mosque in Lucknow and a similar relief being sought in Mathura concerning the Shahi Eidgah mosque.

The validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 is pending a challenge in the top court based on a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and 9 others.