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The Supreme Court said that this issue seems to be discussed with the order of December 12 of the high court which prevents the courts of the country from entering into new cases.
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will hear a plea challenging an order regarding the study of the medieval “Bhojshala” in Madhya Pradesh claimed by people of two communities, apart from pleas challenging the 1991 places of worship law.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti said the issue appears to be addressed by the Supreme Court’s December 12 order barring state courts from hearing new cases and issuing injunctions in controversial claims against religious bodies.
The bench directed the registrants to seek directions from Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and mark the matter with pending appeals.
It left all the disputes of the parties in the open during the hearing of the applications.
During the brief hearing, Adv Vishnu Shankar Jain, who represented the Hindu groups, said Bhojshala’s case will not be included in the December 12 order as it is protected and maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.
The bench said that it is just marking that the matter will be judged on the pending applications but if there is a party with complaints, it will start to take a decision to ignore the mining of this site, even though the court issued an order to prohibit it from April 1, 2024. No physical mining, which can change its status, should be done.
On December 12, the high court stayed until it ordered the country’s courts not to open new cases and issue any temporary or final orders to those pending to restore religious sites, especially mosques and dargahs.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan halted the proceedings on 18 cases filed by various Hindu groups seeking a probe into the identity of 10 mosques including Gyanvapi in Varanasi, Shahi Idgah Masjid in Mathura and the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal where the lives of four people were snuffed out of disputes.
The high court passed the order on nearly six petitions against various provisions of the Special Provisions Act, 1991.
The 1991 Act prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious status of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
However, the controversy related to Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was not noticed.
There are also calls for the effective implementation of the 1991 law to maintain communal harmony and to preserve the current status of mosques, which members of the Hindu community want to return under the pretext that they were temples before the invaders destroyed them.
On April 1, the apex court refused to stop the “scientific survey” of Bhojshala in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district but said no action should be taken without its consent on the outcome of the exercise.
Hindus consider Bhojshala, an 11th century monument protected by the ASI, as a temple dedicated to Vagdevi (goddess Saraswati) while the Muslim community calls it the Kamal Maula mosque.
Under the plan implemented by ASI on April 7, 2003, Hindus perform puja in the Bhojshala premises on Tuesdays and Muslims pray in the complex on Fridays.
The apex court has issued notices to the Centre, Madhya Pradesh government, ASI and others on a petition filed by Maulana Kamaluddin Welfare Society challenging the apex court’s March 11, 2024 order regarding “scientific research”.
The high court directed the ASI to conduct a “scientific survey” of the Bhojshala complex within six weeks and allowed the ASI to conduct any other survey it deems necessary to ascertain the true nature of the complex saying that representations about the right to worship are considered only after the report.
(This story was not edited by News18 staff and was published by the syndicated news agency – PTI)