‘To make the illegal construction of Mughals legal…’, Advocate Upadhyay said on Worship Act

On Thursday (December 12, 2024) on the Worship Act, Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay said that there cannot be any law to legalize the illegal construction of Mughals and this Act is unconstitutional. This prevents Hindus from taking back and claiming their religious places.  He said that how can one know by just looking at any construction whether it is a temple or a mosque, survey is necessary for that and historical facts show that the Mughals changed the religious identity of many places. 

The bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice PV Sanjay Kumar and KV Vishwanathan on Thursday has banned filing of new petition regarding survey of any temple or mosque in the country till the next hearing. CJI Sanjeev Khanna clarified that petitions can be filed but they cannot be registered. Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay is also among the 9 petitioners challenging the Worship Act. The Places of Worship Act 1991 says that the structure of the religious places in the country that existed on August 15, 1947, will remain the same and will not be tampered with."text-align: justify;">Ashwini Upadhyay has filed a petition demanding the repeal of Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Worship Act. He termed the Places of Worship (Space Provision) Act, 1991 as unconstitutional and claimed that it legitimizes the illegal actions of Babar, Humayun and Tughlaq in history. He further said, ‘The opposition party has demanded cancellation of the order of survey of 18 religious places. We oppose this because the Worship Act, 1991 talks about the structure of religious places.’

Ashwini Upadhyay said, ‘The religious character of a building cannot be determined by its structure. No one can tell just by looking whether it is a mosque or a temple, hence a survey must be done, there cannot be any law to legalize the illegal constructions of Babar, Humayun, Tughlaq, Mahmud Ghazni and Mohammad Ghauri. This act is against the Constitution of India.’

Ashwini Upadhyay said, ‘This is the Places of Worship Act, not the Places of Prayer Act. A temple is known as a place of worship, while a mosque is known as a place of namaz. This law talks about the identity of the site and its structure. We want a survey of all the disputed sites so that their real religious identity can be known. This is not a matter of Hindu-Muslim. The religious places mentioned in Bhagavad Gita, Vedas and Ramayana should be taken back and for this a survey is necessary.’ 

He further said that one cannot differentiate between Hindu and Muslim just by applying tilak and wearing a cap. He said, ‘This law says that the structure of a religious place cannot be tampered with and we accept it, but historical facts show that the Mughals tampered with the religious character of many places. Our demand is that the real identity of these places should be revealed. Right now I am in the Supreme Court in a black coat and this shows that I am a lawyer. If I apply tilak, I will be considered a Hindu. If I wear a cap I will be called a Muslim. My external identity may change, but my real identity will be revealed only after investigation.’

The petitioners challenging the Worship Act have objected that the law prevents many communities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists from reclaiming and claiming their historical religious sites. Maharaja Kumari Krishna Priya from Kashi Royal Family, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, former MP Chintamani Malviya, retired army officer, Advocate Chandra Shekhar, Rudra Vikram Singh, Swami Jitendra Saraswati, Devkinandan Thakur ji and Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay are the petitioners. p style="text-align: justify;">Also read:-
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