It would be idle for the BJP, which spearheaded the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, to wait for the Supreme Court to strike down the places of worship law after it files the counter-affidavit within four weeks from December 12. Instead, its government at the center should advisedly introduce a law to repeal the places of worship law. Parliament has powers to repeal its own laws by passing a resolution to that effect in both the houses of the Parliament and getting the Presidential assent. – S. Murlidharan
The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991 (places of worship law) was passed in 1991, the year before the Babri Masjid was demolished. It prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and mandates that the religious character of places of worship remain frozen, as it were, as they were on August 15, 1947. It also bars legal challenges to this status. It however exempted the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya on the ground that courts were already seized of the matter. The Act was passed to quell any future controversy arising out of the ownership and character of any place of worship in the country as well as to preempt any such attempt.
In Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India, challenging the places of worship law (filed in 2020), the Apex Court had issued notice to the Union Government in March 2021. Later, a few other similar petitions were filed challenging the statute. The Union Government is yet to file its counter-affidavit in the matter, despite several extensions given by the Court presumably because the contents thereof may itself become a subject of raging debate. The issue once again became a focal point of public discussion recently in view of the violent events which followed the survey of the Sambhal Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh.
Taking cognizance of the raging dispute, the Supreme Court on 12th December asked the Union Government to file its counter-affidavit within four weeks thus forcing its hands. Simultaneously, it has directed trial courts across the country not to pass any effective orders or surveys against existing religious structures in suits filed disputing the religious character of such structures. It is this part of the recent Supreme Court action that must wake up the NDA government out of its slumber and passivity because hitherto the Courts including the Apex Court seemed not to be enforcing the restraints of the places of worship law. Now that the Apex Court itself has stayed any attempts even to survey, the government can no longer dither or buy time.
In 2010, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the disputed land be divided into three parts. One third to the Ram Lalla or Infant Rama represented by the Vishva Hindu Parishad; One third to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the remaining third to Nirmohi Akhara, a Hindu religious denomination. It was critiqued among other things as a panchayati justice to please all the feuding parties without taking the bull by its horns. Predictably, all the parties were dissatisfied and the Apex Court stayed the Allahabad High Court verdict.
In November 2019, the Supreme Court brought finality to the vexed issue by handing over the disputed site for construction of the Ram temple and ordering the government to constitute a trust for this purpose and giving five acres of land to the waqf board for construction of a mosque away from the Ram Mandir. On 22 January 2024, the grand temple was inaugurated.
It would be idle for the BJP, which spearheaded the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, to wait for the Supreme Court to strike down the places of worship law after it files the counter-affidavit within four weeks from December 12. Instead, its government at the center should advisedly introduce a law to repeal the places of worship law. Parliament has powers to repeal its own laws by passing a resolution to that effect in both the houses of the Parliament and getting the Presidential assent.
When Article 370 conferring special status to Jammu and Kashmir could be repealed with a constitution amendment calling for a two-thirds majority of the two houses of Parliament and approval by at least 50 per cent of the state assemblies, repealing the places of worship law calling for a simple majority in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha should be much easier all the more so if the expedient of a joint session is called for the purpose. That expedient is resorted to when the government is not confident of mustering a simple majority in separate motions in either of the two houses.
The places of worship law was passed by the minority Narasimha Rao government in a manner of running with the hare and hunting with a hound as per the critics in that it never took serious measures to stop the Ram temple juggernaut.
Be that as it may, the point is the places of worship act smacks of pusillanimity as it in the name of secularism prevents the Hindus from freeing the remaining two of the triumvirate Krishna and Shiva from the shadows of looming mosques. The Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura and Kashi Shiva temple are as sacred to the Hindus as Bethlehem is for Christians and Mecca for the Muslims. The RSS which represents a sizeable section of the Hindu society has magnanimously forsworn claim to other Hindu temples buried under other mosques.
The Modi government is in the process of defanging the Waqf boards that have acquired immovable properties through the simple expedient of a mere proclamation. Once again, the Congress Party was responsible for encouraging the notion that the concept of waqf transcended even the Indian Constitution. The repeal of the places of worship law or its implied repeal with a fresh legislation on the subject cannot be termed as disrespecting the Apex Court. Parliament in its wisdom can pass any law anytime even though it did not do so in the Babri case in which it chose to bide its time for the Supreme Court verdict in favor of the Hindus. But that does not mean it has to do an encore with regard to the places of worship law.
By repealing the invidious law, Parliament would be removing an unreasonable fetter on Hindu rights. As it is, the Opposition smugly cites it only to stop the Hindu movements on their tracks. When it is gone it would be a case of na rahega baans na bajegi bansuri. The need for filing the potentially embarrassing counter-affidavit would also become infructuous. Of course, the Modi government detractors can be counted upon to mount a challenge to the upfront or implied repeal of the places of worship law but that is something that could be taken head on as it would assume another dimension — Parliament’s unquestionable power to make or repeal laws so long as it does not fall foul of the basic structure doctrine. The basic structure doctrine itself could be the subject matter of another article.
The repeal would send a message round and clear that the government does not agree with the Opposition on the sanctity and invincibility of the places of worship law. The Supreme Court case too would be rendered infructuous in its wake. Offence is the best form of defence. The counter affidavit would have most certainly minced words or hemmed and hawed. Repeal would be a more dignified and honest response. The entire opposition would be on the backfoot and flummoxed. After all, the places of worship law itself was a knee-jerk reaction by the Narasimha Rao government. If its repeal too is knee-jerk, so be it. – News18, 18 December 2024
› S. Murlidharan is a senior columnist in New Delhi.
Filed under: india | Tagged: dargahs, hindu temple sites, islamic iconoclasm, mosques, places of worship act |
BHARATA BHARATI 