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The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and Samajwadi Party MPs are targeting Chandrachud for a decision last year by a bench headed by him which allowed an ASI survey of the Gyanvapi premises in Varanasi
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board blamed the Chandrachud-led bench for “softening its stance” and allowing a survey at Gyanvapi. (PTI)
The moves of the lower courts on Sambhal and Ajmer Sharif have brought the focus of political attacks on former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for “opening the floodgates” for such petitions and surveys of various religious sites in the country.
First, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and now, MPs from the Samajwadi Party are targeting Chandrachud for a decision last year by a bench headed by him which allowed an ASI survey of the Gyanvapi premises in Varanasi.
“That decision by Chandrachud was a bad one, a wrong one. It has opened the floodgates for more such surveys. The SC must take cognizance and stop such petitions and surveys in the country’s interest,” SP MPs Zia Ur Rehman Barq and Mohibbullah Nadvi told News18.
The AIMPLB also issued a statement on the same lines, blaming the Chandrachud-led bench for “softening its stance” and allowing a survey at Gyanvapi. “During the Babri Masjid case, the SC referred to the Places of Worship Act, 1991, and said no new claims could be entertained after the enactment of this law that specified that the status of any place of worship has of August 15, 1947, shall remain unchanged and cannot be challenged,” the AIMPLB said.
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It then went on to refer to the Chandrachud bench judgement last year. “Yet, when the lower court accepted the claim on Gyanvapi mosque, the Muslim side approached the Supreme Court, arguing that such a claim should not entertained given the Places of Worship Act. The court, however, softened its stance, and allowed the survey, stating it did not violate the 1991 law,” AIMPLB says.
This has led to subsequent claims on Shahi Eidgah in Mathura, Teelewali Masjid in Lucknow and now the Jama Masjid in Sambhal, and Ajmer Sharif, says the statement by the AIMPLB.
“The lower courts should immediately stop entertaining any such petitions. Only the Supreme Court and the high court should look into matters related to the Places of Worship Act, 1991. Or the lower court decisions will set the country alight,” senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav told News18.
Imran Masood of the Congress also questioned what purpose a survey will serve if the character of a religious place cannot be changed as per the 1991 Act. “What is the purpose of a survey at all except spreading communal disharmony and tensions?” Masood told News18.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, while speaking to News18, also questioned the purpose of such surveys when nothing further can happen as per the 1991 Act. “The same day a petition was moved in the Sambhal court, in that afternoon the survey was ordered, and the survey was also done within the same day,” Owaisi said.
Many opposition leaders are also appealing for a stop to such surveys citing RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement from 2022 that “there is no need to look for a Shivling in every mosque”.
The Counter-Argument
Many of these cases are led from the Hindu side by Vishnu Shankar Jain. He cites Section 4 of the 1991 Worship of Places Act, which clearly says it won’t apply to places protected by the ASI.
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“The Sambhal site is an ASI-protected one. Hence the Places of Worship Act, 1991, does not apply to Sambhal,” Jain said. He also cited the Ancients Monuments Act of 1950 which says that if an ASI-protected monument is a religious site, then the ASI will determine the religious character of that site and provide access to the community to which the religious site is attached.
Jain has cited this Act to press for a survey of the Sambhal Jama Masjid site and demand access for Hindus to do prayers there. The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the trial court proceedings in the matter till the high court decides on the matter, and said the survey report will be kept in a sealed cover by the lower court.
The Chandrachud Judgement
The Supreme Court, on August 3, 2023, allowed a scientific survey by the ASI at the Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi, a decision by a bench of then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. The Anjuman Intejamia Masjid Committee of Varanasi had argued before the court that the decision was against the 1991 Places of Worship Act and would open the floodgates of similar pleas across the country.
However, the SC bench said Section 3 of the Places of Worship Act did not expressly bar ascertaining of the religious character of the place of worship, while Section 4 of the same Act prohibits change of character of religious places as they existed on August 15, 1947.
After this judgement, on December 14, 2023, the Allahabad High Court allowed a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah Mosque complex adjoining the Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple in Mathura. A dispute also arose in Madhya Pradesh over the scientific survey of Bhojshala, an ASI-protected 11th-century monument. Earlier this week, a local court also issued notices on a plea that claims there was a temple in the Ajmer Sharif dargah of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti and fixed the matter for December.
