Supreme Court calls for limit on interventions in Places of Worship Act petitions

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that there has to be a limit to the interventions being filed in the petitions challenging provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna also noted that "too many" petitions were being filed. The bench posted the case for hearing in April before a three-member bench.

The SC also said that petitions challenging the act and in which no notice has been issued by the court, will stand dismissed. Such petitioners can file applications in existing petitions provided such applications raise fresh grounds, the bench added.


Several political parties and politicians have filed intervention applications. These include the Congress, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) head Asaduddin Owaisi. All of them have defended the validity of the act and opposed the petitions which challenge the law.

In its intervention application, the Congress, had last month, submitted, "The applicant seeks to intervene in this matter to emphasise the constitutional and societal significance of the POWA, as it apprehends that any alterations to it could jeopardise India's communal harmony and secular fabric, thereby threatening the sovereignty and integrity of the nation".

On December 12, the apex court had directed the trial courts not to pass any effective orders or surveys against existing religious structures in suits disputing the character of such places.

A bench headed by CJI Khanna had said that since the matter is "sub-judice" before the top court, "we deem it appropriate to direct that though fresh suits may be filed, no suits would be registered and no proceedings shall be undertaken therein till further orders of this court."