New Delhi: The Congress is likely to approach the Supreme Court seeking the strict enforcement of the Places of Worship Act, 1919, joining forces with several petitioners including All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi, ThePrint has learnt.
The Congress may file an impleadment application to become a party to the proceedings before the SC, which will take up the matter for hearing on 17 February. On Thursday, the top court agreed to take up Owaisi’s plea for proper implementation of the act along with a bunch of other petitions.
Last month, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha had filed an intervention application in the SC, asserting that the 1991 Act “does not violate any fundamental rights under Part III of the Constitution”.
“The party may file the impleadment application as early as next week. It is possible that it may either be in the name of Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal or Jairam Ramesh, who is the general secretary in-charge of communications. The application is being drafted,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint.
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The application, once filed, will mark a subtle shift in the Congress’s strategy on the question of rights of minorities, with the party drawing criticism in recent years from various quarters, including voices that rose internally, for not being vocal enough against acts of atrocities targeting Muslims.
The Congress’s decision is also the outcome of a debate within the party on the need to take a firm stand on the issue, with a section of its leaders underlining the need to defend the Act which was enacted by a Congress government in 1991 when the Ram Mandir movement had reached a crescendo.
Enacted by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government, the law preserves the religious character of places of worship as it existed at the time of India’s freedom. It came under the spotlight following orders by local courts in Varanasi and Mathura to survey the Gyanvapi and Shahi Eidgah premises, respectively.
A civil court in Rajasthan has also admitted a petition that claimed the Ajmer Dargah was originally a temple. In November 2024, Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal found itself in the grip of communal riots following the order of a court to carry out a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid there.
This prompted a special SC bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna to issue the directive on 12 December that courts cannot admit fresh suits or order surveys of religious places until further orders.
“Further, we direct that in pending suits, courts will not pass any effective interim or final orders,” CJI Khanna had said.
The Congress, in its plea, will argue that the strict enforcement of the Act was essential for communal harmony and the preservation of India’s secular ethos. A Congress leader said that there was no reason for the party to be hesitant about taking a clear stand on the issue “when even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has taken a bold stand”.
Bhagwat has twice in the last one year cautioned against raking up new religious disputes in the name of reclaiming places of worship. “Ram temple is a matter of faith for Hindus. The Hindus believed Ram temple should be constructed. But by doing that one does not become a Hindu leader…Under the burden of the extreme past, it is not acceptable to resort to extreme hatred, malice, enmity, suspicion and rake up such new issues on a daily basis,” the Sangh head said at an event in Pune last month.
There was also a discussion on whether a group of INDIA bloc parties should move the court jointly on the issue. However, that plan was shelved, Congress sources said, pointing out that the party has been insisting, ever since the dispute over Gyan Vapi broke out, that the Act needs to be enforced in letter and spirit.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, had in November 2024 reiterated its “firmest commitment to the letter and spirit of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 which is being violated brazenly by the BJP, the CWC discussed the challenges faced by the Indian National Congress following the results of the four Vidhan Sabha elections”.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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