New Delhi: Ongoing surveys of places of worship, including mosques, will be paused, the Supreme Court said Thursday as it began hearing petitions challenging certain provisions of the Places of Worship Act.
Among the six petitions facing the court today was one by the BJP's Subramanian Swamy. The main petition was filed four years ago after which the government was told to respond, but never did.
On the other side, certain petitions sought enforcement of the Act, which prohibits filing a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in character that prevailed on August 15, 1947.
Among those in this camp are a raft of MPs and political parties, including Jitendra Awhad from Sharad Pawar's NCP faction and the RJD's Manoj Kumar Jha, as well as Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK.
In an order that will bring relief for petitioners in other cases - many of whom who had sought to question court-ordered surveys of mosques, on claims they were built over demolished Hindu temples - the lower courts were also directed to not pass any order or hear any new cases.
The directive to lower courts to not issue orders, interim or final, in pending cases includes those concerning the Gyanvapi Mosque, the Mathura Shahi Idgah, and the Sambhal Masjid; each faces claims by Hindu petitioners that the existing structure was built over what was once a Hindu temple.
The management of the Gyanvapi and Shahi Idgah mosques were also present.
This pause will remain in effect till this matter is heard next - which will be in four weeks' time, when the government will respond to petitions against the Places of Worship Act - a special Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar, and Justice KV Viswanathan said.
This matter cannot be decided till the union government files its response, the court said.
"...the matter is sub-judice before this court... we deem it appropriate to direct that while suits may be filed, no suits can be registered (or) proceedings undertaken till further orders of this court."
"...in pending suits, courts cannot pass interim or final orders, including orders of survey, till next date of hearing," the Chief Justice-led special bench said.
The pause comes amid violence and continuing tension in UP's Sambhal following court-ordered surveys of a mosque last month; five people were killed in communal clashes. A separate Supreme Court bench heard this and halted action, directing the mosque to move the Allahabad High Court.
READ | "Want Peace, Harmony": Top Court Halts Action Any Sambhal Mosque
The violence also triggered a furious political row, with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress slamming the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over yet another instance of a mosque - in this case constructed in the 16th century - marked for demolition over claims it had been built over a temple.
READ | "What About Sandeshkhali?" BJP Slams Rahul, PGV In Sambhal Row
Matters came to a head last week after district officials first stopped a delegation of Samajwadi Party MPs, and then the Congress' Rahul Gandhi, from visiting the families of those who were killed.
To do so could trigger a 'law-and-order' problem, the SP and Congress were told.
Dramatic scenes followed as Mr Gandhi and Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, leading a delegation of Congress lawmakers, tried to push past extensive police barricades. Mr Gandhi demanded to be let through in his capacity as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, but the cops refused to relent.
There was also a case last week in which a part of a 185-year-old mosque on the Banda-Bahraich Highway was torn down. District officials claimed the portion demolished was illegal and new.
READ | Part Of 185-Year-Old Mosque Razed In UP, Officials Claim "Encroachment"
The chief of the management committee countered the claim, pointing out the mosque was built in 1839 and the road only in 1956. "Yet they are calling parts of the mosque 'illegal'."
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