‘Pledged to reclaim all Hindu temples…’: Hari Shankar Jain on SC decision on Places of Worship Act

GHAZIABAD (Uttar Pradesh): After the Supreme Court decision on the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act 1991, Advocate Hari Shankar Jain on Friday said that he has pledged to reclaim all the Hindu temples which have been broken to build mosques.

“It is not a relief for anyone. If anything, it is a relief for Hindus that the court has decided to check the validity of the Places of Worship Act… I have already filed the Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar cases in the court. I have pledged to reclaim all the Hindu temples which have been broken to build mosques… No court of law can give a verdict which is not in the interest of its majority population… The fight is not against mosques, it is against the structures which were built on temples, and they cannot be called mosques”, Advocate Hari Shankar Jain said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday restrained all courts across the country from passing any effective interim or final order including orders of survey in pending suits against existing religious structures. A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justices P V Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan also ordered that no fresh suits can be registered over such claims while the court is hearing pleas challenging the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

“As the matter is sub-judice before this court, we deem it fit to direct that while suits may be filed, no suits would be registered and proceedings undertaken till further orders of this court. In the pending suits, courts would not pass any effective interim order or final orders, including orders of survey”, the bench ordered.

The apex court was informed that at present, 18 suits are pending in the country against 10 mosques or shrines. The bench also granted four weeks to Centre to file an affidavit in a batch of petitions challenging certain provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act, 1991, that prohibit the filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947.

The pleas challenged the Places of Worship Act saying that the Act takes away the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to restore their ‘places of worship and pilgrimages’, destroyed by invaders. The daughter of the Kashi royal family, Maharaja Kumari Krishna Priya; BJP leader Subramanian Swamy; Chintamani Malviya, former Member of Parliament; Anil Kabotra, a retired army officer; advocates Chandra Shekhar; Rudra Vikram Singh, resident of Varanasi; Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati, a religious leader; Devkinandan Thakur Ji, resident of Mathura and a religious guru and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay among others have filed the pleas in the apex court against the 1991 Act.

The 1991 provision is an Act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. (ANI)