Places of Worship Act challenged: Supreme Court seeks Modi govt's reply in two weeks on petitions

Amid fresh cases of disputes over religious places, like the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri temple case in Varanasi, the Supreme Court granted two weeks to the Central government to file its reply on a bunch of petitions.

The petitions challenge the validity of some provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. These provisions 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 Supreme Court ordered that the matters be heard by a three-judge bench on 11 October 2022 and asked the parties to complete the pleadings by then.

One of the petitions, filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, claims that the 1991 law created an "arbitrary and irrational retrospective cut-off date" of August 15, 1947. The petition alleged encroachment by "fundamentalist-barbaric invaders and law-breakers".

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