2 weeks Ago By Harish V Nair
New Delhi: The Committee of Management of Shahi Masjid Eidgah in Mathura, currently involved in the Krishna Janmabhoomi dispute with Hindu petitioners, filed an intervention petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The petition seeks to be heard extensively when the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Places of Worship Act, 1991 is taken up by a special bench. The committee, in its petition filed by Supreme Court advocate R.
H. A. Sikander, argued that challenges to the Places of Worship Act (POW Act) should be dismissed on the grounds of delay, asserting that the Act has stood the test of time for 33 years and questioning the rationale for challenging it now.
“It is submitted that the Parliament, in exercise of its powers and in the interest of the forward progress of the country, had enacted the enactment under challenge, which has stood the test of time for more than thirty-three years. It is submitted that the Petitioners have chosen to challenge the enactment belatedly, after 29 years. The effect of laches in filing a petition has to be considered by the court even where violations of fundamental rights have been alleged,” the intervention plea stated.
The Places of Worship Act, 1991, which provides for maintaining the status quo of a religious place as it existed on August 15, 1947, is central to the Krishna Janmabhoomi dispute, as well as disputes in Gyanvapi, Sambhal, and Bhojshala. The petition highlighted the role of the committee: “The Applicant is the Committee responsible for the management of the Shahi Masjid Eidgah, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, which at present is the subject matter of seventeen different suits being tried by the Hon’ble High Court of Judicature at Allahabad. The Plaintiffs have staked a claim over the entire parcel of land over which the Shahi Masjid Eidgah has been built and have further sought removal of the Shahi Masjid Eidgah structure from the said land, claiming the same to have been built over Krishna Janm Sthan.
" "While the Applicant has contested the maintainability of the aforesaid suits on several grounds, the claims raised in the suits against the Applicant are also not maintainable as per the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, specifically Sections 3, 4, 6, and 7 thereof. This enactment is subject matter of challenge in the present writ petition. The adjudication of the present writ petition is likely to have a significant bearing on the adjudication of the said Special Leave Petitions and on the pending suits against the Applicant.
” The Idgah committee further emphasised that the validity of the Places of Worship Act had already been upheld in the Ayodhya judgment by the Supreme Court. “That it is respectfully submitted that the vires of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, has been upheld by a Constitution Bench of this Hon’ble Court in M. Siddiq (D) Thr.
Lrs. vs. Mahant Suresh Das & Ors.
,” contended the Committee of Management of Shahi Masjid Eidgah. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from India and around the world..
