In a significant legal move, the committee managing the Shahi Masjid Eidgah in Mathura has petitioned the Supreme Court to restrict the Union of India from further submissions in the ongoing dispute regarding the Places of Worship Act, 1991. This application highlights a series of delays attributed to the Centre in responding to petitions challenging and seeking enforcement of the Act.
The mosque committee accuses the Union of India of intentionally delaying its response, thereby obstructing the judicial process and preventing opponents of the Act’s challenge from submitting their responses. The committee pointed to several instances where the Supreme Court extended deadlines for the Union of India to file its response, all of which were missed.
Notably, on December 12, 2024, the apex court observed that despite over three years since the issuance of the original writ petition notice, the Union of India had failed to submit its counter affidavit. The court subsequently ordered a consolidated counter affidavit to be filed within four weeks—a deadline that has also passed without compliance.
With the hearing scheduled for February 17, 2025, the mosque committee argued that justice would be best served by closing the Union of India’s right to submit further documents in this case.
The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan, has already issued an interim order barring civil courts from registering new cases or conducting surveys on disputed religious sites, reflecting the sensitive nature of these proceedings.
The 1991 Act, introduced during the peak of the Ram temple movement under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s administration, seeks to preserve the religious character of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, exempting the Ayodhya dispute from its provisions.
