{"id":14374,"date":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/15-03-2021\/places-of-worship-special-provisions-act-1991\/"},"modified":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","slug":"places-of-worship-special-provisions-act-1991","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/15-03-2021\/places-of-worship-special-provisions-act-1991","title":{"rendered":"Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, the <strong>Supreme Court<\/strong> (SC) has asked the Centre to respond to a plea challenging the <strong>Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The plea <strong>challenged various<\/strong> <strong>provisions of the Act<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Section 2, 3, 4<\/strong> not only <strong>offend <\/strong>the right to pray, practice and propagate religion (<strong>Article 25<\/strong>), the right to manage, maintain and administer places of worship-pilgrimage (<strong>Article 26<\/strong>), right to conserve culture (<strong>Article 29<\/strong>) but are also contrary to State\u2019s duty to protect historic places (<strong>Article 49<\/strong>) and preserve religious cultural heritage (<strong>Article 51A<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It has been challenged on the ground that it <strong>violates secularism<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Also, the <strong>cut-off date <\/strong>of 15th August 1947 has been held as \u201c<strong>arbitrary, irrational and retrospective<\/strong>\u201d as it <strong>prohibits Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs from approaching courts<\/strong> to \u201c<strong>reclaim<\/strong>\u201d their places of worship which were \u201c<strong>invaded<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cencroached\u201d upon before independence.<\/li>\n<li>The cut off of 15th August also means that the <strong>status quo determined by a colonial power is considered final<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It was opposed during its introduction as well, because the <strong>Centre has no power to legislate on<\/strong> \u201c<strong>pilgrimages<\/strong>\u201d or \u201c<strong>burial grounds<\/strong>\u201d which is <strong>under the state list<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>About the 1991 Act<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It was passed in <strong>1991 <\/strong>by the<strong> P V Narasimha Rao<\/strong>-led Congress government.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>To provide for the <strong>maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>To <strong>prohibit conversion of any place of worship<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>To<strong> curb communal tension<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Major Provisions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sections 3 and 4 <\/strong>declared that the <strong>religious character of a place of worship shall continue to be the same as it was on 15th August 1947<\/strong> and that <strong>no person shall convert<\/strong> any place of worship of any religious denomination into one of a different denomination or section.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Section 4(2)<\/strong> says that <strong>all suits, appeals or other proceedings<\/strong> regarding converting the character of a place of worship, that were <strong>pending on 15th August 1947<\/strong>, <strong>will stand abated when the Act commences and no fresh proceedings can be filed<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>However, <strong>legal proceedings can be initiated<\/strong> with respect to the conversion of the religious character of any place of worship after the commencement of the Act <strong>if the change of status took place after the cut-off date<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exemptions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ram Janma Bhumi Babri Masjid<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Under <strong>Section 5<\/strong> of the Act, it <strong>does not apply to Ram Janma Bhumi Babri Masjid<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nothing contained in this Act shall apply<\/strong> to Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid situated in Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) and <strong>to any suit, appeal or other proceeding relating<\/strong> to it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Any place of worship that is an <strong>ancient and historical monument<\/strong> or an <strong>archaeological site<\/strong>, or is <strong>covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Any <strong>dispute that has been settled<\/strong> by the parties or <strong>conversion <\/strong>of any place that t<strong>ook place by acquiescence before the Act<\/strong> commenced.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>suit <\/strong>that has been <strong>finally settled or disposed of<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/63921096597934140_image.png\" style=\"height:482px; width:615px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Image Credits: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/what-does-the-places-of-worship-act-protect\/article29993190.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>SC\u2019s Views and Stand<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the <strong>2019 Ayodhya verdict<\/strong>, the SC held that the Act<strong> manifests the secular values<\/strong> of the Constitution and strictly prohibits retrogression.<\/li>\n<li>It provides <strong>confidence to every religious community<\/strong> that their places of <strong>worship will be preserved<\/strong> and that their character will not be altered.<\/li>\n<li>The law <strong>addresses itself to the State<\/strong> as much as <strong>to every citizen<\/strong> of the nation and its <strong>norms bind those who govern the affairs<\/strong> of the nation at every level.\n<ul>\n<li>Those norms <strong>implement the Fundamental Duties under Article 51A<\/strong> and are hence <strong>positive mandates<\/strong> to every citizen as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Through it, the State-enforced<strong> a constitutional commitment<\/strong> and operationalized its <strong>constitutional obligations to uphold the equality of all religions<\/strong> and <strong>secularism <\/strong>which is a part of the <strong>basic structure of the Constitution<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In agreeing to examine the law, SC has <strong>opened the doors for litigation in various places of worship <\/strong>across the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-reading-the-law-that-maintains-status-quo-in-places-of-worship-7226020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has asked the Centre to respond to a plea challenging the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. Background The plea challenged various provisions of the Act. Section 2, 3, 4 not only offend the right to pray, practice and propagate religion (Article 25), the right to manage, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[51,31,30],"class_list":["post-14374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-executive-judiciary","tag-government-policies-interventions","tag-gs-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/5541253current-affairs (1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}