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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

04/02/24 07:13 AM IST

The legal dispute over Varanasi, Mathura mosques

In News
  • The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, is once again in focus, albeit in a context in which its objectives are being ignored.
Places of Worship Act
  • When the Babri-Masjid Ram Janmabhoomi dispute gained momentum, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu organisations took up the case of two other mosques — the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah in Mathura.
  • In September 1991, the P.V. Narasimha Rao government enacted a special law to freeze the status of places of worship as they were on August 15, 1947.
  • The law kept the disputed structure at Ayodhya out of its purview as it was then an ongoing litigation.
Features of the act
  • The Act declares that the religious character of a place of worship shall continue to be the same as it was on August 15, 1947.
  • It says that no person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination into one of a different denomination or section.
  • It declares that all suits, appeals or any other proceedings regarding converting the character of a place of worship, which are pending before any court or authority on August 15, 1947, will abate as soon as the law comes into force. No further legal proceedings can be instituted.
  • There are a couple of exceptions to the rule.
  • The 1991 Act will not apply to ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains that are covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
  • It will also not apply to any suit that has been finally settled or disposed of, any dispute that has been settled by the parties before the 1991 Act came into force, or to the conversion of any place that took place by acquiescence.
Gyanvapi case
  • A suit was filed in 2022 in the Varanasi district court by a group of Hindu women worshippers seeking to assert their right to worship deities they claim are still found on the premises of the Gyanvapi mosque.
  • The plaintiffs say they have a right to worship Ma Sringar Gauri, Ganesh, Hanuman and other “visible and invisible” deities.
  • Also pending is another batch of suits filed in 1991 seeking a declaration that a part of the site of the Gyanvapi mosque belongs to Lord Vishweshwar.
  • The main basis for the suits is that the Hindu side says that an old temple of Lord Vishweshwar lies at the centre of the Gyanvapi compound.
  • The site, they contend, is the abode of the ‘self-manifested’ deity since time immemorial. They claim that the temple was demolished on the order of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1669.
Ongoing disputes
  • In the Gyanvapi worshippers’ case, the ruling is that the suits aimed to assert the right of worship of the Hindu deities and did not seek to convert the status of the mosque.
  • Regarding the earlier batch of suits, the Allahabad High Court has taken the view that the Act does not define the term ‘religious character’.
  • A structure cannot have the dual character of being both Hindu and Muslim, and that only an examination of evidence can determine its religious character.
  • The Act cannot be an absolute bar on proceedings to ascertain its religious character, it held.
  • Regarding the Mathura dispute, the district court has taken the view that the suits are not barred by the Places of Worship Act, as what is under challenge is the compromise decree based on the 1968 agreement.
  • As the decree was drawn up before the commencement of the 1991 Act, it is not applicable to the case, it has held.
Source- The Hindu

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