The new petition challenging the Places of Worship Act, 1991, was refused to be entertained by the Supreme Court and instead the court permitted the Petitioners to file intervention petitions in the pending cases where notices have been issued.
The Bench of Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and Justice J. B. Pardiwala asked about the number of petitions that were filed ? How many petitions will be filed?”
About 8 petitions were told to have been filed in the same.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for Chandra Shekhar,
For Swami Jitendranand, Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria appeared, Senior Advocate C S Vaidyanathan appeared for Rudra Vikram Singh and Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia appeared for Devkinandan Thakur.
All the grounds raised in the petitions can be raised in the impleading petitions, said the court.
The court also believed that if any petitioner tries to withdraw the pending petitions, the impleading petitioners will be permitted to be transposed as petitioners.
The Top Court heard six PILs filed by Advocates Chandra Shekhar and Rudra Vikram Singh, retired Army Officer Anil Kabotra, Devkinandan Thakur Ji, Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati, and former Bhartiya Janta Party MP Chintamani Malviya.
The validity of Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991 was challenged in the petition as being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26, and 29 of the Constitution, as well as the principles of Secularism.
The validity of certain provisions of the 1991 Act, were also challenged which include the PIL filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay that is pending before the Supreme Court.
The Court had earlier issued notice on the PIL filed by Upadhyay, seeking a response from the Centre.