Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has written a letter to PM Modi urging him to defend the Places of Worship Act.
Mentioning the purpose of the act, he wrote, ‘The Act of 1991 was enacted by Parliament to protect the character of places of worship as they stood on August 15, 1948. The primary purpose behind such a provision was to protect the diversity and pluralism of India.’
Highlighting the observations made by the Supreme Court while deciding the Babri Masjid dispute, he wrote, ‘Supreme Court had stated that by enacting the 1991 Act, the State had enforced its constitutional commitment and operationalized its constitutional obligation to uphold the principle of secularism, which is part of the basic structure of the constitution’
After stating the intent of the Act and Apex court’s observation, Owaisi wrote, ‘I request you to not let the executive take any view which deviates from the true sprit of constitutionalism as reflected in Supreme Court Judgment as well as in the aims and objects of the legislation’.
Urging PM Modi to defend the sanctity of the legislation, he wrote, “the Act represents the idea that one cannot endlessly litigate against history. That modern India cannot be the battleground of resolving medieval disputes”.
Asaduddin Owaisi writes after SC seeks response from center
Asaduddin Owaisi wrote the letter after Supreme Court last Wednesday granted two more weeks to the Centre to respond to a batch of petitions challenging certain provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act, 1991, that prohibits the filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947.
During the hearing, the apex court said “When the challenge is to central legislation, we will be guided by what is the stand of the Central government in this case,” and asked about the stand of the government on the issue.
The pleas challenged the Places of Worship Act saying that the Act takes away the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to restore their ‘places of worship and pilgrimages’, destroyed by ‘invaders’.
